Vietnam Faces Power Shortage Following Drought

Vietnam Faces Power Shortage Following Drought

Vietnam is to face a serious shortage of power this May, with all eleven hydroelectricity plants nationwide currently dealing with severe drought, an industry official said.

The power industry is expecting the country will suffer more serious shortages starting from mid-May, said Dang Huy Cuong, a high-ranking official of state-owned Electricity of Vietnam, or EVN, which holds a monopoly position in the local electricity market.

The National Electricity Distribution Center has also forecasted that Vietnam will likely lack 10 million kWh each day this summer, equivalent to the daily power demand in Hanoi. It also said that two to three million households nationwide would be subject to power outages at times.

Local media, meanwhile, have warned that limited electricity supply could wreak havoc for power-reliant industries, a local newspaper reported.

There has been speculation that the country’s largest hydroelectric power plant Hoa Binh, which accounts for 14.6 per cent of EVN’s total generation capacity and 43.7 per cent of the generation capacity in the North, can continue operation for just one month as the water level of its feeder reservoir is alarmingly low.

“The plant is now producing only 10 million kWh a day, and is able to hold out for only 27 or 28 more days if there is no heavy rain,” said Cuong, adding that production of a hydroelectric power plant in the central region has ground to a halt due to lack of groundwater, while another nine facilities nationwide can only continue operation for one and a half months at maximum.

The 11 hydro power plants are capable of producing up to 40 per cent of the country’s total generation capacity, but their combined output made up only 21 per cent of the national figure since the beginning of this year.

EVN, therefore, has to ask thermal plants to speed up their production and currently all of its thermal plants have reached their maximum capacity, Cuong said.

“Other non-EVN plants also sell us 39 to 40 million kWh of electricity each day, contributing one fourth of the country’s total power generation capacity,” he said.

He said the industry would try its best to ensure sufficient power supplies for major cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Danang and Haiphong. But other provinces would have to ration power, he said, adding each province had its own power cut plans, which would be approved by local authorities.

Since the beginning of this year, Vietnam has imported 15 million kWh of electricity from China each month. The country will have to continue to import power from China over the next months.

Vietnam forecasts domestic demand for electricity will rise by 15 per cent per annum in the 2001-2005 period, to reach 53.4 billion kWh in 2005, and by 13 per cent in the 2006-2010 period, to 96.1 billion kWh in 2010.

• B.T