Ensure sufficient power supply, energy projects’ progress: PM

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has reiterated instructions that ministries and state-run energy giants ensure coal and gas supply for electricity production as well as progress of key power projects.

The instructions aim at avoiding last summer’s complaints from businesses and the general public over repeated power cuts in the northern region.

In a recent dispatch, the PM ordered the Minister of Industry and Trade to coordinate efforts with relevant agencies and local governments to finish by the end of June a new 500-kilovolt transmission line that will transmit electricity from the central region to the north.

The ministry has also been asked to finish drafting a decree on incentives for rooftop solar installations by households, offices and industrial parks.

It should work with Petrovietnam and Vietnam Electricity (EVN) to draft decrees on fast-tracking mechanisms to sell and purchase wind and gas-fired energy by the second quarter of this year, the PM has directed.

The ministry should also take measures to speed up ongoing power plant projects as well as urgently develop new plants in the northern region, which was severely hit by power shortages in early summer last year, causing manufacturing disruptions.

Furthermore, the ministry should instruct Petrovietnam, miner Vinacomin, and military-run coal miner Dong Bac Corporation to supply sufficient coal and gas for power production.

It will have to supervise and ensure the schedule of the Block B gas project per National Power Development Plan (PDP8); as well as track the progress of other key projects like the Ca Voi Xanh (Blue Whale) and Thi Vai-Nhon Trach power plants.

National utility EVN has been asked to put into operation power plant and transmission grid projects, including expansion of the Hoa Binh hydropower plant and Quang Trach 1 thermal power plant.