Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang said in a dialogue with NA deputies that around 100 small hydropower projects had been cancelled.
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| Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang |
Hoang said 22 out of the 66 hydropower dams subject to periodic inspections were safe, but many of the plants haven't yet been checked include seven large-scale dams with capacity of over 30MW.
After a series of earthquakes at Song Tranh 2 Hydropower Plant, Swiss independent consultant company AF-Colenco was hired to report on the situation. It declared the dam safe.
Addressing the case of Dak Rong 3 Hydropower Plant, Hoang denied a dam breach. He said the breach was on a section of spillway channel which was not included in the blueprint. The spillway channel was a temporary construction built to collect water to test equipment supplied by foreign partners and the breach would not affect the plant.
Since 2009, provincial authorities have agreed to scrap 107 hydropower plant projects and will not construct dams in 156 locations which have high potential for hydropower.
Currently, Vietnam has 1,114 hydropower plants and projects. 239 have been completed and entered operation, 217 were under construction and will be put into use from now until 2017. 309 projects are having their plans drafted and other 349 are still searching for investors.
The Minister of Industry and Trade confirmed that the government would gradually reduce the monopoly of the Vietnam Electricity Corporation (EVN). On July 1, Vietnam officially implemented a competitive power-generation market.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade is also studying whether to implement a pilot programme for an electricity wholesale competitive market in 2015 and retail competitive market in 2020.