The Vietnam Mine & Minerals Group (Vinacomin) said it will carry out its plan to build and hand over several large thermal power plants with combined capacity ranging from 1,100-1,400 megawatt and bauxite aluminum factories of total capacity of 1 million tons of aluminum per annum from now to 2010.
All these projects will help ease the nation’s power shortage and facilitate the economic development of the project-benefiting areas in the country, according to domestic industry analysts.
Vinacomin will appraise the first turbine and officially start operation of the Cao Ngan 100-MW thermal power plant in the next 4 months while kicking off the Nong Son 30MW thermo-power plant in the central Quang Nam province, the Cam Pha 300MW thermo-power plant in the north and the Mao Khe 220-MW power plant as well as seeking government approval to build other peat-to-power plants, Vinacomin’s general director, Doan Van Kien said.
Meanwhile, Vinacomin will start construction on the Lam Dong Bauxite Aluminum Complex with annual capacity of 600,000 tons in Bao Lam district while filing for the Nhon Co Aluminum Project in the central highlands Dak Nong province by the end this year, Kien added.
The group has recently been authorized to survey the Nhan Nghia Mine to build another aluminum factory with the capacity of 1-1.5 million tons, which is hoped to boost economic development in the province, Vinacomin officials said.
Under directions of the government and the Ministry of Industry, Vinacomin and the US power company AES are to build the Mong Duong 1,000-MW thermal power plant, the biggest of its kind in the form of build-operate-transfer (BOT) in the coal-rich northern province of Quang Ninh.
The two sides have inked an in-principle agreement to establish a BOT venture, in which the foreign firm will hold a 90 per cent stake; the remaining shares chipped in by Vinacomin.
The State-run Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) recently estimated that electricity shortages will rise from 1.1 kilowatt hours (kWh) in 2006 to 10.3 billion kWh in 2009 before falling to 7.2 billion kWh in 2010.
Vinacomin, which is merged from the Vietnam Coal Corporation and the Vietnam Mineral Corporation, mines coal and bauxite and provides power, transport, property and other services. Vietnam & World Economy
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