Taekwang eyes second thermal power plant in Vietnam

photo source: enternews.vn

General director of Taekwang Power Holdings Sang Yuon Yoo, in a meeting with Quang Tri authorities, expressed the firm’s interest in the Quang Tri 2 thermal power project in the Quang Tri Southeast Economic Zone.

Vice Chairman of Quang Tri’s provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Quan Chinh said the local province was seeking investors to finance the project, which will be carried out under build-operate-transfer (BOT) or build-own-operate (BOO) methods, with an estimated total investment of $1.5 billion.

The thermal power project is one of 17 incentivised projects for which the province is actively seeking investment over the 2016-2020 period.

A consortium of Taekwang Power Holdings and ACWA Power is the investor of the $2 billion Nam Dinh 1 power project. Nam Dinh 1 is an independent greenfield project that will be developed on a BOT basis. It is part of the 2,400MW Nam Dinh thermal power complex in northern Nam Dinh province.

According to a source from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), after negotiations on the BOT contract, the consortium and the MoIT reached an agreement on most of the contract’s content. The investment licence for this project is anticipated to be granted this year.

The Nam Dinh coal-fired power plant is the largest foreign-invested project in the province. When the plant begins operating, it will create more than 1,000 jobs for Nam Dinh, contributing to the province’s economic shift towards industrialisation.

Also in Quang Tri province, Thailand’s EGATi is to develop the $2.26 billion Quang Tri thermal power plant. The investor is negotiating with the MoIT. The project will be built under the BOT model over a 25-year period, and use imported coal as feed material.

The Vietnamese energy sector is expected to be the next big driver for foreign direct investment growth in the country this year. Foreign direct investment in this sector will likely reach a record high of about $4 - 5 billion in 2016, while other BOO and independent power producers are speeding up the construction of their projects.