Vietnam builds biggest hydropower project
HANOI - The Electricity of Vietnam Corporation (EVN) Friday started to build Southeast Asia's larges thydropower project in Vietnam's northern province of Son La.
With the capacity of 2,400 MW, the Son La station will be able to generate 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually upon completion of a two-year construction, according to local afternoon Daily Saigon Times.
Total investment of the project will be 2.3 billion US dollars. Its reservoir is designed to hold a maximum of 9.26 billion cubic meters of water, and its dam will be 1,400 meters long and 138 meters high.
The station with six power-generating units will help alleviate the possible power shortage in years to come, control flooding and supply water for the Red River Delta downstream. The first generator will be in operation by 2010.
The paper quoted the chairman of Son La province as saying that the project will bring annual power sales revenue of 400 million US dollars.
Power demand has grown from 13 percent to 15 percent annually in recent years in Vietnam, where 60 percent of the power output come from hydroelectricity.
Vietnam's energy consumption is projected to reach 95 billion kWh by 2010, more than double the 46 billion kWh last year, according to the paper.
Xinhuanet - December 2 , 2005.
Vietnam begins construction of northern hydropower dam
HANOI - Vietnam began construction this morning on a massive 2.7 billion dollar, 2,400-megawatt hydroelectric power project that has been embroiled in controversy since its inception, officials said.
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai was on hand for the start of the damming of the Da river early this morning in northwestern Son La province, 340 kilometres northwest of Hanoi.
When completed in 2015, the plant should generate 9.43 billion kilowatts hours (kWh) per year - about 20 per cent of Vietnam's present power supply - with its six 400-megawatt turbines, according to project managers.
The dam project is also designed to supply water to the northern Red River delta in the dry season and prevent flooding in the rainy season.
"The construction is of great significance not just to the people in Son La but to people all over the northwest," said Phan Nhu Hoa, vice chairman of Son La people's committee from the site of the construction.
Vietnam needs to rapidly expand its electricity generation to feed its booming economy even as it continues to hook up poor areas to power grids for the first time. Ten years ago, only about half of households in Vietnam had electricity. By 2003, the number was 81 per cent of households according to the World Bank.
The World Bank also estimates Vietnam's power demand will continue to grow by as much as 15 per cent each year until 2010 - before the Son La plant comes on line. To fill the gap, Vietnam has made deals to buy electricity from neighbouring Laos and to build dozens more hydropower and gas plants.
The Son La dam project has been mired in controversy for years because of the cost and the relocation of some 120,000 people.
Vietnam's National Assembly in 2000 rejected the original plan for the dam over concerns at the number of people to be displaced and fears that too high a dam might flood Hanoi if there was a mishap.
The rejection was a significant departure for the elected parliament, which had formerly been seen as merely a rubber stamp for the Communist Party.
In late 2002, the National Assembly approved a scaled-down plan for the Son La dam that would be lower and displace fewer people. Still, around 91,000 households have to be relocated for the plant and some 18,000 households in the reservoir basin have been relocated.
Most of the displaced villagers are being resettled in the country's Central Highlands region, which has already seen more than 1 million settlers in the past two decades. In 2001, three Central Highlands provinces erupted into riots as indigenous ethnic minorities protested land redistribution to ethnic Vietnamese settlers.
However, government officials downplayed the disruptions of lives for the project.
"The plant will not just generate power but also create new opportunites for local people when they are allocated to the new area," Hoa said.
The Son La plant is the second on the Da River after the Hoa Binh power plant which went on line in 1998. Vietnam currently gets about 40 per cent of its electricity from hydropower.
Deutsche Presse Agentur - December 1 , 2005.
Electricity of Vietnam begins work on new hydroelectric plant
HANOI - Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) began construction on the An Khe-Kanak Hydroelectric Power Plant in the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) province of Gia Lai on November 26.
The project, with a total capacity of 173MW, is expected to produce 685 million kWh annually, bringing in a turnover of VND450 billion (US$29 million) per year.
The plant and 10 other hydroelectric power plant projects on the Ba River, the 11 plants will produce 2.7 billion kWh electricity annually. EVN's deputy director general, Pham Le Thanh, said the project had two stages, which were the An Khe Power Plant located in the central province of Binh Dinh's Tay Son District, and the Kanak Power Plant in Gia Lai Province's Kbang and Kanak districts.
The 320 million cu.m reservoirs for the project, besides providing electricity, will also supply water for more than 4,700ha of agriculture land in Binh Dinh Province. The total investment for the project is nearly VND3.8 trillion ($242.3 million). It should be completed by 2009.
Vietnam News Agency - November 29, 2005.
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