Power up eases pressure on grid

illustration photo

Two more hydropower plants have just plugged into the national grid adding 1.3 billion kilowatt hours of electricity each year to the supply.

Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), the country’s sole electricity distributor recently stated that the first turbine of An Khe-Ka Nak hydropower plant had successfully joined the national grid.

The Gia Lai province plant has a capacity of 173 megawatts with an average electricity output of 701.5 million kWh annually.

 Meanwhile, the second turbine of Dong Nai 3 hydropower plant with a capacity of 90MW was hooked up to the national grid last week.

Dong Nai 3 hydropower plant is one of four existing projects on Dong Nai River including Dai Ninh, Srok Phu Mieng, Dong Nai 3 and Dong Nai 4. Dong Nai 3 has two turbines with a total designed capacity of 180MW to provide an average electricity output of 607 million kWh per year.

The first turbine of Dong Nai 3 hydropower plant was commissioned in January of this year, seven years after the plant’s construction started.

EVN reported that late last week  the first two turbines of the Son La hydroelectricity plant, which joined the national grid in January and April this year, had generated more than 2 billion kWh of electricity, or nearly half the power generated by the whole country in a month. EVN representatives said the installation of the third and fourth turbines of the plant was on schedule and the third turbine would go live in August while the the fourth turbine would follow in December.

Most of the equipment for the last two turbines, located in the northern mountainous province of Son La, has also been delivered to the site. With six turbine groups and a combined capacity of 2,400MW, the project has a total investment capital of some $2 billion and will produce 10.2 billion kWh of power a year when it is completed

Moreover the completion of repairs of other thermo-power plants in the north such as Cam Pha, Quang Ninh, Haiphong and Son Dong will also help stabilise power supplies, according to an EVN report.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade (MoIT) Hoang Quoc Vuong asked EVN not to cut electricity supply in June.

The power output in the first five months of this year is estimated at more than 43 billion kWh, an increase of 10 per cent against the same period last year, according to the MoIT.