Vietnam Calls for Investment in Power Plant Construction

Vietnam calls for investment in power plant construction

HANOI, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) — Vietnam plans to invite foreign and domestic companies to construct 15 power plants with the total capacity of 11,776 mw, the country’s biggest power producer and sole distributor said Monday.

The state-owned Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) has just proposed the Industry Ministry should encourage investors to pour money into building the plants in the form of independent power producers, saying the country’s electricity demand will increase 14-15 percent annually in the 2006-2010 period, while the corporation’s financial sources are limited.

Now, the EVN needs some 45 trillion Vietnamese dong (over 2.8 billion US dollars) to complete 14 power projects which are under construction. However, it has yet to get the full capital, partly because commercial banks in Vietnam, under prevailing rules, are not allowed to give loans to a project to the tune of more than 15 percent of their legal capital.

By constructing more power plants, Vietnam hopes to increase its electricity capacity to 25,000-26,000 mw in 2010 from the current 11,400 mw, meeting demand for its socio-economic development. The EVN plans to build 173 small- and medium-sized hydroelectric stations with combined capacity of 2,290 mw in the coming years.

Now, 95.4 percent of communes and nearly 91.3 percent of households in the country have access to the national electricity grid, the corporation said.