Race to meet power demands

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Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) said at the ongoing 2nd Vietnam Power Summit 2011, taking place on June 22-23, in response to critical energy security issues, Vietnam had commissioned more power projects to add electricity to the grid in the next few years and had rolled-out new initiatives toward liberalising the power sector with new independent power projects.

Over the next 10 years, Vietnam plans to build 95 power plants with an estimated investment of $39.58 billion, whose total capacity would be 49,044 megawatts, of which a large part of investment capital will be sourced from foreign investors. This will be aimed to meet the growth rate of 12 per cent per year in power demand by 2020.

At present, Vietnam has 38 power projects which are under construction, of which 26 belong to EVN.

EVN said it would need over $3 billion each year to invest into the plants and power grids.

It is expected that the country’s power consumption by 2015 will grow by 15 per cent, while the power supply will grow by 14.5 per cent.

Also by late 2015, Vietnam’s total power capacity will be 48,497MW.

With rapid industrialisation and economic growth, Vietnam’s power infrastructure is now incapable of meeting increasing demand for electricity.

At the seminar,  key questions discussed at the event include challenges faced by independent power producers, investors and financiers in developing power projects in Vietnam, how to ensure financing and investment flows meet these challenges, and the changing expectations, issues and challenges of independent power producers and international financiers

The two-day networking summit brings together key Vietnamese regulators, local power players, international power producers, developers and operators, multilateral agencies, financiers, investors, legal experts and consultants.

The summit is organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ The World and Vietnam Newspaper and Euromoney Seminars, which is a division of Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC.