While
most investors have sunk all of their mobilized capital into building
power-generating plants, little attention and funding has been paid to the
establishment of the transmission system.
With this unbalanced investment, even when the
electricity plants become operational, the power shortage will not be solved,
since there is no wire system to transmit power to consumers, an official from
the Electricity of Vietnam Group has warned.
PetroVietnam’s US$1-billion Vung Ang 1 power
plant in the Ha Tinh-based Vung Ang Economic Zone, expected to be operational
this year, is evidence of this issue.
Nguyen Manh Hung, CEO of the National Power
Transmission Corporation (NPT), has recently cautioned that the plant is likely
to be left unused upon its scheduled completion, due to the lack of a
transmission system.
PVN had promised to support NPT in completing
infrastructure serving for the plant, but NPT still had to carry out most of
the work by itself, said Hung.
“This scenario, if does occur, will result in
huge damages for the economy with the severe power shortage,” he warned.
“The investors will also be affected, since
they cannot sell electricity despite their huge investment into the
establishment of the plant.”
Hung added that even the capital city of Hanoi
cannot avoid the power shortage.
The capital may face power cuts this summer if
the power transmission projects under construction fail to reach completion on
time, he said.
According to an official from the General
Department of Energy under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the project to
build the 220kV power wire system to connect with the Van Tri power station has
been delayed due to low progress of site clearance.
“Many power sources such as the Hoa Binh, Son
La hydropower plants are ready to prioritize supply for Hanoi, but can do
nothing if the transmission project is not completed,” he said.
Power industry faces capital shortage
Like other infrastructure projects, the power
projects are also challenged by financial problems.
An EVN report shows that last year it invested
a total of 63 trillion dong ($3 billion) in power projects, but that a third of
the sum was intended to clear debts and bank loans.
Though many major state-run enterprises in the
coal, and oil and gas sectors have invested in the power industry, EVN is the
only player when it comes to setting up transmission systems.
However, the power monopoly also assigned all
of the investment, maintenance and operation tasks of the system to NPT, which
is suffering financial turbulence.
“NTP is in an alarming financial state. It is
meaningless when you invest in the power generating plants, but neglect the
transmission system,” said Hung at a meeting in 2010.
Last year, the CEO also confirmed the
enterprise’s “negative financial state,” saying NTP is only paid 80 dong for a
kWh, while the global price is around 200 dong a kWh.
Hung said since the company cannot earn
profits with such low payments, it has to borrow from the bank for most of the
investments.
“However, most banks refuse to provide loans
for us, even when the Prime Minister ordered them to help.”
EVN has recently proposed six urgent projects
to solve the power shortage in the southern region, but there have yet to be
any sources of capital, he said.
“Investment in power transmission should be
considered infrastructure investment, and thus should be prioritized,” he
demanded.
For his part, To Quoc Tru, director of the
Center for Energy Consultancy under the Vietnam Energy Association, said the
transmission system can currently meet only 50 percent of the total generated
power.
“The industry should have invested in the
power plants and power transmission systems simultaneously, rather than putting
them under separate investment,” stated Tru.
“The government should have a solution to
maintain a source of capital for NPT.”
Tuoi Tre
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