QUẢNG TRỊ — South Korea’s Korea Western Power Co. (KOWEPO) plans to construct a 1,200MW coal-fired power plant in the central province of Quang Tri in 2018.

Provincial officials said the plant was expected to become operational in 2021.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the project signed last month says KOWEPO will invest US$1.85 billion in building the Quảng Trị Power Plant No 2, which will be located in the province’s Southeast Economic Zone.

KOWEPO will own and operate the power plant for 25 years. It will also carry out construction management and operations and maintenance (O&M) services.

“We will establish a growth base in Việt Nam and make a full-scale entry into the Indochina power generation market by successfully completing this project,” Jung Young-chul, general manager of the Planning and Management Division of KOWEPO, said in a statement on the company’s website.

The Korean firm is also preparing a basic investment prospectus for the project for completing the plant by the end of 2024.

According to KOWEPO, the power plant will supply power to Quảng Trị Industrial Park and Economic Zone, as well as main development projects of the province.

Last year, the province granted investment licences to 15 projects worth VNĐ10 trillion ($444 million).

The province, situated on the East-West Economic Corridor and Trans-Asia road link with Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, has called for foreign investment in organic and hi-tech farming and the processing industry.

In the 2011-15 period, Quảng Trị attracted 262 domestic and foreign projects with a combined investment capital of about VNĐ50.3 trillion (more than $2.23 billion).

The province also plans a 14,000ha farm as a high-tech zone that will produce lotus milk and host a freshwater fish aquaculture centre.

In 2015, Thai company One Asian signed a MoU with the province to invest approximately $2.4 billion in a 1,200 MW thermal power plant starting in 2017 and finishing in 2019.

The Thai investor also agreed to study the development of an energy complex in the southeast economic zone that would combine power plants with the Mỹ Thủy deep water port project, and natural gas-fired power plants to take advantage of the 30 billion cubic metre gas reserves off the central coast of Việt Nam.

Also in 2015, another Thai investor, EGATI, said it was planning to invest $2.26 billion in the 1,200-MW Quảng Trị thermal power plant project on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. The plant is expected to commence commercial operations in 2021. — VNS