Petrovietnam units sign $1.2 billion coal power plant deal

• 14 years ago (2011-07-08)
• David Flin

Asia 948 North America 1047

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Vietnam’s state-run Petrovietnam has awarded two contracts worth a combined $1.2 billion to two subsidiaries to build a 1200 MW coal-fired power plant.

The contracts for the Quang Trach 1 plant were signed with Petrovietnam Construction Corp (PVC) and Petrovietnam Investment Consultancy (PVE). Construction will start on July 19. The plant will use coal imported from Indonesia and Australia. The Vietnam government said that the plant would use: “Environmentally friendly pulverised coal-fired technology.”

The government said PVE would design the plant, and PVC will buy, install and test run equipment for two units at the plant. The first unit is due to start operations in June 2015, and the second in December 2015.

The move comes as coal is expected to overtake hydropower as the leading fuel for new electricity generation in Vietnam in the next five years. The country is currently buying electricity from southern China to avoid outages.

The contract signing for the first project in central Vietnam follows the country’s first import of 10,000 tonnes of Indonesia coal.

Vietnam is also taking the initial steps towards opening up its power sector to the market by launching a pilot competitive generation market to encourage private power generators to boost supplies.