Power company asks 6,000 firms to cut production

These 6,000 producers are consuming the most electricity, about 60pct of the volume of power supplied by EVN SPC every day, said the public relations department of the State utility company on Monday.

Among them, there are nearly 200 steel and cement makers, currently using some 10% of the total power supplied by EVN SPC. Steel and cement factories are mainly located in Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Long An and Binh Duong provinces.

EVN SPC and HCMC Power Corporation last week were asked by Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) to restrict supply for the customers that consume too much power, such as steel and cement producers.

This move is aimed at dealing with the high possibility of power shortfall in the southern region during this year’s dry season, EVN explained.

Hydropower reservoirs are falling short of 15 billion cubic meters of water, equivalent to 1.4 billion kWh of electricity. Therefore, EVN has to resort to other power sources, including diesel oil, despite the higher costs.

Even so, it is likely that there will be power outages at certain points.

EVN SPC will inform enterprises of power cuts five days in advance so that they can get prepared. In extraordinary case, they will be informed 24 hours in advance and in case of emergency, 12 hours.

Power shortage will be the most severe in April and May, when hydropower output is low, and in July-September, when gas supply for a number of power plants in the south is disrupted for regular maintenance.

This month, the daily power supply for the southern localities is some 125 million kWh, or around 6,110 MW of generating capacity, up 10pct year-on-year.

If industrial producers reduce power consumption by 10% during rush hours, some 610 MW can be saved. Preliminary calculations show that given rising inventories, cement producers can cut power consumption by 30-40pct and steel makers can reduce 25-30pct.