Central Vietnam province calls for investment in $2.4 bln LNG-fired power plant

Nghe An will organize a meeting this Friday with potential investors for the $2.4-billion Quynh Lap LNG-fired power plant in the central Vietnam province, its Department of Industry and Trade has announced.

Relevant project information including master plans, bidding procedures, the time and location for investors to submit bids will be revealed at the meeting held at the department’s headquarters.

The department will be the project coordinator, with an aim to get it begin commercial operations before 2030.

The 1,500-MW Quynh Lap LNG-to-power plant project is included in the national power development plan VIII (PDP VIII). Covering 210-360 hectares in Quynh Lap commune, Hoang Mai township, the facility will comprise an LNG-fired power factory, a gas terminal, a dyke and a receiving terminal.

It will have an LNG input of about 1.15 million tons a year and a port to receive ships of about 100,000 DWT.

The Quynh Lap project was initially planned as a thermal power plant. In the previous PDP VII, this project had two factories, Quynh Lap I and Quynh Lap II, with a total capacity of 2,400 MW.

In the latest PDP VIII, the project has been removed along with other coal-fired power plants with a combined output of 13,220 MW. The electricity sector has been tasked with checking suitable locations to establish an LNG-to-power plant in the 2021-2030 period.

Vietnam is yet to have a power plant that exclusively uses LNG as fuel. Some gas-fired power plants like Phu My 3, Phu My 2.1, and Phu My 4 switched to using LNG as fuel from April onwards.

In July, PV Power, a subsidiary of state-owned Petrovietnam, announced that the $1.4-billion Nhon Trach 3 and Nhon Trach 4 LNG-to-power complex, the first of its kind in Vietnam, had basically completed related land lease tasks and was preparing to “first fire” one of the plants this month.