Electricité de France (EDF) plans to invest US$4 billion in a coal-fired power plant in Mekong Delta Hau Giang province of Vietnam, said a local official.
The plant will have a designed capacity of 3,600 MW, said Nguyen Phong Quang, provincial party committee secretary, adding that the plant will be the biggest of its kind in Vietnam.
The Vietnamese government has approved the EDF’s project, said EDF country director Yves Desbazeille.
The company has recently toured Song Hau industrial zone in Chau Thanh district of Hau Giang province to find location for the power plant, said Ong Phuoc Hai of the provincial Planning and Investment Department.
“This is a very big power project, which will need financial support from the governments of Vietnam and France,” Hai said.
Hai said that the potential investment plan for the project will be included on the agendas of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and the leaders of Hau Giang province, who are scheduled to visit France from September 30 to October 3.
EDF plans to import coal from other countries in the region to fuel the new power plant, as the province doesn't have any coal sources, Hai said.
If approved by Vietnamese relevant authorities, construction will begin in 2009, and the plant will be operated by 2013, said Pham Van Kinh, deputy director of EDF Vietnam.
“Vietnam's economy is burgeoning,” he said. “The country will need a lot of power plants to meet the growing demand for electricity.”
EDF spokeswoman Caroline Muller, however, responded by saying the company hasn't committed itself to the plan and is only at the stage of a preliminary feasibility study, adding that it is looking into the project following a request from the Vietnamese industry ministry.
EDF currently operates a wholly-owned 700-MW gas-fueled power plant in the Phu My power complex in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province. (Down Jones, Pioneer, Reuters)
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