Hanoi thirsty for electricity

• 14 years ago (2010-04-06)
• David Flin

North America 995

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The Hanoi Power Company of Vietnam has announced that it will turn off 50 per cent of street lamps from now to June 2010 to save energy for the upcoming summer. The company has also asked advertising companies to reduce the number of lamps on big billboards and to turn off lamps after 10pm, otherwise the power will be cut.

Large energy users, including factories and offices, have been asked to reduce power usage during this time. From April to June, the Hanoi Power Company has said that it will not sell additional power to big customers.

According to the Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN), demand will increase during the coming dry season, and water levels in the northern region’s reservoirs are lower than normal. The shortage of water, estimated at 2.6 billion cubic metres, will result in a loss of electricity production.

In addition, Hanoi lacks transformer stations and does not have an adequate transmission line system. Under the 2006-2010 plan to develop the power grid in Hanoi, it needed to build six new 220kV stations and 26 110kV stations, and that by 2010, the 220kV transformer stations will need an additional 1625MVA in transmission capacity, while the 110kV stations will need an additional 2159MVA.

This means that by the end of 2010, Hanoi will need to increase the capacity of 220kV stations by 86 per cent, and increase the capacity of 110kV stations by 82 per cent. However, according to the latest report to the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the power supply to Hanoi, EVN said that none of the 220kV works have been put into operation, and the plan is 2-5 years behind schedule. As a result, the current transmission system in Hanoi has been overloaded, leading to continued power cuts during the hottest summer days in June 2009. Bui Duy Dung, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Electricity Company, said that the tardiness in site clearance is the main reason behind the delays.