Vietnam to license three more coal-fired power plants in June

Vietnam to license three more coal-fired power plants in June

The Vietnamese Government will grant investment licenses to three
foreign-invested coal-fired power plants costing a combined $7.5 billion
early next month, foreign media cited Minister of Planning and Investment
Nguyen Chi Dung as saying.

Japanese, South Korean, and Saudi Arabian investors are expected to secure
licenses for their projects ahead of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc's visit
to Japan next month, Minister Dung said.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, South Korea's Taekwang
Power Holdings Co. and Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power will both invest $2.07
billion in a 1,200 MW thermal power plant scheduled to begin operations in
2021.

Meanwhile, Japan's Marubeni Corp. and the Korea Electric Power Corp. will
invest $2.79 billion in a 1,200-MW plant, with operations expected to also
begin in 2021.

Japan's Sumitomo Corp. will invest some $2.64 billion in a 1,320 MW plant to
kick off in 2022, the ministry said.

South Korea's Posco Energy Company has secured approval from the Vietnamese
Government to build a $2.5 billion coal-fired thermal power plant in the
country, with construction expected to begin in 2022 and be completed by
2026.

In a recent message to the power industry, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh
Dung said thermal power will be the mainstay of Vietnam's electricity supply
over the next two decades and possibly longer.

His statement came as confirmation of Vietnam's continued reliance on
coal-fired power to keep up with demand, which will pose a number of
challenges in mitigating the power sector's environmental impact while
increasing the country's dependence on coal imports.

The country's energy demand is expected to grow 13 per cent annually over
the next four years.

Energy sources such as hydropower have reached their maximum capacity while
the renewable energy sector remains in its infancy and nuclear power's steep
price tag is too high for a country in which public debt is approaching 65
per cent.

According to the revised National Power Development plan, coal-fired power
will account for 42.7 per cent of total energy sources by 2020, higher than
the current 33.4 per cent. Historically, Vietnam has been self-sufficient in
coal, but this has changed.

More than $400 million was spent during the first quarter of this year on
importing coal, based on recently published figures from the Vietnam
Industry and Trade Information Center (VITIC).

Vietnam will have as many as 64 coal-fired power plants with a combined
capacity of 56,325 MW by 2030.

Twenty-six plants, with a total capacity of 13,810 MW, are operational and
15 are under construction.

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Link to Original Article:
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/business/179194/vietnam-to-license-three-mo
re-coal-fired-power-plants-in-june.html

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com