USTDA muscles up power development

USTDA director Leocadia I. Zak last week told VIR that the agency had just approved a $600,000 technical assistance programme for the National Power Transmission Corporation of Vietnam (NPT) to assist NPT in developing a new information technology (IT) and smart grid roadmap.

“Hopefully implementation of this programme will be begun next year,” she said.

The programme, the second of this type between USTDA for NPT, would link a team of US’ experts from Tangible International of Virginia with NPT to expand and modernise Vietnam’s electrical grid.

“I am excited to see the outcomes of this new system, once implemented, that will enable NPT to effectively manage time-sensitive situations like line congestion or power fluctuations in order to better respond to its customers’ needs,” Zak said.

In addition to helping NPT develop the IT architecture for its smart grid implementation, the Tangible International team would also assist NPT in designing a telecommunications system that would enable the power company to identify and react to time-sensitive transmission situations on its large electric grid.

During US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s official visit to Vietnam in July 2012, US’ General Electric Company, in collaboration with USTDA, inked a $16.5 million deal with NPT.

Under the deal, GE would supply electricity transmission capacitors to NPT’s Power Transmission Company No.4 to double Vietnam’s existing power capacity through the upgrade of the country’s national backbone transmission system’s Pleiku-Phu Lam transmission line from 1,000 amps to 2,000 amps.

“The 500kV 500 kilometre Pleiku-Phu Lam transmission line is the backbone of Vietnam’s north-to-south power transmission,” said Dang Phan Tuong, chairman of NPT’s board of management. “When coming in operation in 2013, the project is expected to supply approximately 800 megawatts for the country’s southern region and better regulate its national energy grid.”

Under the terms of this deal, GE would supply six series capacitor banks to NPT and provide on-site supervision for installation testing and commissioning. The project utilises GE’s latest fuseless technology to enable a 100 per cent increase in the current capacity of the existing transmission line and installed infrastructure.

The US Export-Import Bank is financing the project. Shipping and installation of the capacitors at the three locations will begin in the second quarter of 2013, with commercial operation set to begin in the third quarter of the year.