Vietnam: 14 thermal power plants in Mekong Delta too much

Vietnam: 14 thermal power plants in Mekong Delta too much

Building 14 thermal power plants in the Mekong Delta is a "very
unsustainable development scenario", Nguyen Minh Due, chair of the Energy
Science Council of the Vietnam Energy Association, said.

Of the thermal power plants to be built in Mekong Delta, the smallest has
designed capacity of 600 MW and the biggest 2,000 MW, or nearly equal to the
capacity of the Song Da thermal power Plant in the north (2,400 MW).

"So, the 14 thermal power plants all will have total capacity of 20,000 MW.
I personally think that this is very unsustainable," Due said.

He said the domestic coal supply is declining and coal-fired plants will
have to run with imported coal.

Meanwhile, the contracts on coal imports have not been signed, while Vietnam
has problems in infrastructure conditions to receive coal.

In the past, coal was priced at $40 per ton. But it is now sold at $60 per
ton and the price is expected to continue to escalate. Once the coal price
increases, the electricity generation costs will be increasing
proportionally, and thermal power won't be as cheap as people think.

Meanwhile, when developing coal-fired plants, Vietnam will have to face a
big challenge - pollution caused by thermal power plants.

Due said the Mekong Delta should ask the government to adjust the power
development strategy.

On this issue, Tran Huu Hiep, member of the Southwest Steering Committee,
said it was the Prime Minister who approved the overall power development
strategy and only the Prime Minister could answer the question about
adjustment.

However, the strategy has been adjusted before. As Bac Lieu province is
expected to become a clean shrimp farming center, the Cai Cung thermal power
plant project has been removed from the list of projects to be developed.

Hiep went on to say that if Mekong Delta can develop renewable power units,
there will be no more convincing reason to continue building thermal power
plants.

Nguyen Anh Tuan from MOIT's Energy Institute also thinks that Vietnam has
great advantages to develop renewable energy.

He said in theory Vietnam could develop up to 9.1 million MW of renewable
power, which is much higher than the total electricity capacity of 41,000 MW
of the whole system in Vietnam by 2016.

This includes 15,000 MW of biomass electricity 177,200 MW of biogas
electricity, 9,000 MW from waste, 2.1 million MW from wind and 6.8 million
MW from solar power.

However, by the end of 2016, only 159 MW of wind power had been connected
with the national grid and 6 MW of solar power had been developed, Tuan
said.

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Link to Original Article:
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/environment/185395/expert--14-thermal-power
-plants-in-mekong-delta-too-much.html

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com