On May 22, the massive power outage in over 22 provinces of the South of Vietnam caused major economic losses and raised social concerns. Representatives from the Government, the Vietnam Energy Association and Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) have made an official response to the incident.
Preventing similar incidents from happening
Mr Vu Duc Dam, Minister, Chairman of Office of Government said: "Not only 22 provinces in the South of Vietnam but also Cambodia experienced the outage. This incident has never happened before. Until now although the consequences have not been calculated correctly, they seem very damaging, not only to the economy but also to the whole society."
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Mr Le Duong Quang said: "Looking at the last incident, the first thing we can see is the vulnerability of the 500kV transmission line. Similar incidents occur not only in our country but also in some more developed countries. Ministry of Trade and Industry and EVN have preliminary reported to the government."
Deputy Minister Le Duong Quang affirmed that the troubleshooting process is moving relatively well. After 2 hours, electricity was restored. After 5 hours, Ho Chi Minh city had power back, and after 8 hours, the other provinces got back electricity. In the coming time, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will have to find ways to speed up power projects in the southern region. For now, the southern region is in greater need of power consumption. It is also crucial to focus on accelerating the deployment of a number of 500kV lines approved and strengthen the responsibility to protect the electric grid.
Minister Vu Duc Dam emphasised: "We will ask the electricity industry to comprehensively review the grid to ensure so that the problem and other similar serious incidents will not happen again."
Concerns about the loss of grid’s safety
Mr Tran Viet Ngai, Chairman of the Vietnam Energy Association said: "The power failure this time is very rare. Normally grid cannot break down like that. Dozens of thunderstorms, rain and wind storms happen every day but the power is still guaranteed and safe. Currently, the line corridor, structures, and accessories are entirely safe. We should not take the last incident to evaluate that our grid system is not safe."
Regarding maintenance of the power grid, Mr Tran Viet Ngai shared that currently Vietnam has four electricity transmission companies located across the nation with a strict operation and testing system. I myself am supervising the North-South 500kV line. When the grid is degraded, it poses risk of incident, it must be frequently maintained once every two or three months. Scheduled maintenance takes place once every one or one and a half /year. Overall maintenance is carried out step by step. I affirm that safety is dependent on human, nothing is naturally absolutely safe.
Increase of investment in power sector
Minister Vu Duc Dam said that Vietnam’s area is stretching, electricity grid is interlacing and the number of connectors leading to the 500kV system is limited. If fact, with a network of such interlacing electricity network, Vietnam should have had several connectors leading into the system, which means it is important to promote investment to increase the number of connectors to the 500 kV line, as well as power sources reasonably allocated.
On the issue of investment in the power sector, Minister Vu Duc Dam said that in the approved plan, many projects have been thought of. The Government is also giving direction to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the electricity sector to quickly seek investment capital. Without fast and timely investment, there will be lack of electric power in the country. Electricity is considered the industry’s food, emphasised Minister Vu Duc Dam.
Mr Dang Hoang An, Deputy General Director of EVN shared that to enhance the safety of the grid, EVN will examine, if necessary will propose the Government for additional planning to form another 500kV line from the North to the South to ensure the safety of the national grid in the near future.
Chairman of the Vietnam Energy Association is in support of planning one more 500 kV grid. "Later in the central area’s provinces and the South, we will also build local sources (power plants). It will partly remove the burden for the 500 kV line from the North to the South. When new power plants operate in association with the transmission grid in each region, the risk of widespread grid collapse incident will be reduced.
Huong Giang
Vietnamese
