According to the plant's deputy director Nguyen Manh Cuong, two other turbines have been suspended since June 1 when the water at Thac Ba Hydropower Reservoir fell to below the dead level. Meanwhile, the last turbine set was still operating at a minimum capacity of 15MW to ensure power for local people.
"However, the last turbine has finally been suspended as the water level has continued to fall in recent days," the plant said. "On July 3, the water level at Thac Ba Hydropower Reservoir fell to 47.93 metres compared to the dead level of 46 metres."
Normally the reservoir receives water from small floods that come in April and May but there haven't been any such floods until now, Cuong added. "Since May, the average water flow into the reservoir was only 40 percent that of previous years."
Cuong said that if the water level does not improve, they won't be able to operate by the end of this year.
"This is the first time such a situation has occurred since the plant was put into operation 50 years ago," Cuong said. "We can now only hope that there will be rain in upstream areas."
Lying in the northern province of Yen Bai, Thac Ba Hydropower Plant was put into operation 1971 with three turbines and total capacity of over 120MW.
Thac Ba set a target of producing 401 million KW in 2023. However, the plant has been affected by the prolonged droughts in the first half of this year with only 170 million KW produced in the period.
