Plant delays put the squeeze on the nation’s power reserves

Scores of businesses throughout the nation have had to endure rolling blackouts

With a combined generation capacity of 4,600 MW, the delayed projects include four coal-fuelled power plants - Haiphong (1,200MW), Quang Ninh (1,200MW), Cam Pha (300MW) and Uong Bi (600MW), and five hydro-electric plants – Tuyen Quang (342MW), Bac Ha (90MW), Ban Chat (220MW), Huoi Quang (520MW) and Nam Chien (200MW). The State-run Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) is the investor behind two-thirds of these operations.
A government taskforce led by Thai Phung Ne, one of the prime minister’s special envoys who checked the implementation of the nine power plants in March, found that slow land clearance at construction sites, delayed equipment supplies and poor contractor performances were major reasons for the delays.
Technical differences in engineering and procurement standards between Vietnamese and Chinese contractors at the sites also caused the delays.
“Despite investors and contractors’ attempts, none of the checked power plants will meet the schedule set by the prime minister. If the identified problems can not be solved immediately, the delays will be prolonged,” said the taskforce’s report to the government. The taskforce also investigated the implementation of two projects, one in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai and another in the neighbouring Ha Giang, to develop grids for 500MW of electricity being purchased by China.
“Unless land clearance speeds up at these places, further delays will be unavoidable,” said the report.
Delays in these projects will make it difficult for EVN to satisfy the nation’s 15-17 per cent annual increase in power demand. Between 2006 and 2010 Vietnam will be need to build 124 new power plants.
EVN will invest in 48 of these plants with a combined capacity of 20,570MW and another 76 plants with combined capacity of 15,360MW will be given to domestic and foreign investors outside of EVN.
Some $40.2 billion in investment capital is needed to build the new plants.