Vietnam’s power troubles far from over

Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN) has said Vietnam will continue to be hit with power shortages in the coming years.

Water levels of hydropower lakes are much lower than that of a year earlier

EVN Deputy General Director, Dang Hoang An, discussed the future of power in Vietnam in a recent interview with DTiNews.

Due to prolonged droughts and hot weather nationwide, all hydropower lakes in Vietnam have less water than usual at this time of year although the peak of the rainy season has come and gone, An said.

Water levels of hydropower lakes are much lower than that of a year earlier


By September 20, the water level of Hoa Binh Reservoir was at 99.30 metres, 12.13 metres lower than that at the same time last year. Hydropower lakes in the central and southern regions are also in the same situation, including Ba Ha River Lake, Ham Thuan Lake and the lake of Tri An Hydropower Plant, which dropped so low the plant isn’t operable.

This year is the first time that all hydropower lakes in Vietnam have not yet discharged water during the flood season.

An said that EVN had discharged a total 3.5 billion cubic metres of water from hydropower lakes in the north to serve the 2009-2010 winter-spring crop. In the first eight months of this year, the water level of hydropower lakes decreased by 19.3 billion cubic metres of water compared to a year ago, equal to 3.3 billion kWh of power.

Because of the modest rainfall amount, hydropower plants across the country have failed to work at full capacity of a combined 6,200 MW, or 34.21% to the national total 19,000-MW power generation capacity.

Additionally, a number of newly-built coal-fueled hydropower plants such as Son Dong, Cam Pha 1, Quang Ninh 1 and Haiphong 1 have operated unstably, limiting the power output. Many of the coal plants have been repaired and maintained, while the country has no standby capacity.

EVN has had to cut off power in several localities due to these above mentioned difficulties, noting that the gas supply suspension from Cuu Long Basin and Phu My Gas Distribution Centre for platform maintenance has also hindered the power supply.

To improve the situation, the group has maximized the supply of existing power sources as well as sped up repair and maintenance of coal-fueled thermal power pants. EVN will consider importing electricity from China to meet the domestic demand.

They will continue to supervise water levels at hydropower reservoirs to ensure the operations of the national power grid.