Vietnam needs 128.3 billion USD to develop electricity industry

A wind farm of Trung Nam Group in Ninh Thuan province in the central region of Vietnam (Photo courtesy of the Group)

Hanoi - Vietnam needs about 128.3 billion USD of investment capital to develop its electricity industry in 2021-2030, according to draft electricity planning released by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

On February 9, the MoIT issued a draft national electricity development planning project for 2021-2030, with a vision to 2045 or the power master plan VIII and asked other ministries and agencies to contribute their ideas.

With forecasts that Vietnam's GDP growth will reach an average of 6.6 percent per year in 2031-2045 and 5.7 percent per year in 2031-2045, the MoIT forecast the supply of commercial electricity to reach 491 billion kWh by 2030, and 877 billion kWh by 2045.

The draft expected by 2030, the total installed capacity of electricity sources in the country would reach 137.2 GW including 27 percent from coal-fired thermal power, 21 percent from gas thermal power, 18 percent from hydroelectricity, 29 percent from wind power, solar and renewable energy and 4 percent from the imported sources and 1 percent from other types of energy from storage devices.

The MoIT’s draft said by 2045, the total installed capacity will reach nearly 276.7 GW including 18 percent from coal-fired thermal power, 24 percent from gas thermal power, 9 percent from hydroelectricity, 44 percent from wind power, solar and renewable energy and 2 percent from the imported sources and 3 percent from other types of energy from storage devices.

The power master plan VIII encourages the development of renewable energy and discourages hydroelectricity. Renewables made up 13 percent of power in 2020 and are aimed to make up 30 percent by 2030 and 44 percent by 2045.

Regarding the power grid development programme, the plan proposes to continue building the 500kV power transmission system to transmit electricity from major power source centres in the Central Highlands, south-central, north-central and central regions to the large load centres in Ho Chi Minh City and the Red River Delta. It also asked to strengthen the interconnected transmission grid to support the transmission of power capacity.

In the draft, they also research the application of smart grid and the 4.0 technology in power transmission to calculate and propose in the master plan.

The MoIT calculated total investment capital for electricity development in 2021-2030 of about 128.3 billion USD including 95.4 billion USD for electricity and 32.9 billion USD for the grid.

For the next 15 years, the ministry calculated the need at about 192.3 billion USD including 140.2 billion USD for electricity and 52.1 billion USD for the grid.

Combining the two periods, Vietnam needs 320.6 billion USD to develop its national power system.