Southern region faces with power shortage next year

HCM CITY – There will be a potential shortage of power for southern provinces next year, said Electricity of Viet Nam's (EVN) director Pham Le Thanh in a recent online conference in Ha Noi.

Thanh told the conference that for the last 6 months, the industry and trade sectors had no backup of power sources for the region, while the current two electricity transmission 500kV lines, which carried out 11 per cent of the total power capacity for the south from the north, were overloaded.

Adding to the problem, Thanh said, some power companies in the south did not yet fully operate to meet the growing demand in the region while some border provinces had signed new agreements to sell electricity to Cambodia.

According to EVN, to overcome those difficulties, it would focus on the construction of a third 500kV transmission line and a 220kV transmission line to transfer electricity from the north. It was expected to start a 220kV line by the end of this year and a 500kV line by 2013.

However, these projects, Thanh said, were at risk of delay due to difficulties in capital arrangement and site clearance in six provinces and the cities of Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc and HCM City where the lines would pass.

Thanh said that while EVN was trying to arrange funds for the power projects, it urged the localities in the transmission line projected areas to co-operate closely to speed up the site clearance.

In addition, the Viet Nam National Oil and Gas Group needed to ensure a sufficient supply of gas for thermal power plants in the south, Thanh said.

The Minister of Industry and Trade, Vu Huy Hoang also told EVN to provide less power for the southern province which illegally signed to sell power to Cambodia as such a contract should be done by only by EVN under Government direction. – VNS