Experts suggest measures to develop Vietnam hydropower resource

The Vietnamese government should increase the exploitation of hydropower in the context of increasing electricity demand as the potential of the resource remains large, experts said.

According to the National Power Development Plan VIII (PDP VIII) for 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050, the total designed capacity of the country’s hydropower resource will reach 29,346 MW and the output can stand at 101.7 billion kWh per year. The numbers are expected to increase to more than 36,000 MW and 114 billion kWh per year, respectively, by 2050.

By the end of 2023, the total designed capacity of the country’s hydropower resource was nearly 23,000 MW and the output was more than 80 billion kWh.

According to experts, with abundant hydroelectric resources, Vietnam can continue to exploit a maximum designed capacity of 30,000-38,000 MW and the output can reach up to 120 billion kWh per year.

Meanwhile, hydropower is considered an optimal and reliable resource thanks to its flexible power generation capabilities.

According to energy expert Dr. Nguyen Huy Hoach, with low operating costs, hydroelectric plants are the most flexible and reasonable resource in Vietnam's electricity system.

"In particular, storage technologies, such as pumped storage and battery storage hydropower, will help complement and support each other in the power system in the future," he added.

Hoach said with 41 large hydropower plants with a total designed capacity of 14,330 MW that are under operation and can be expanded, the remaining potential of hydropower is huge.

Da Dang Son, director of the Center for Energy and Green Development, said that investment in expanding a number of existing hydropower plants will provide a peak capacity for the power system and reach a reasonable level in using the rivers' water resources.

Besides, when hydroelectric plants are expanded, they will provide a significant amount of additional energy and improve the electricity quality for the system.

According to experts, the expansion of existing hydropower plants does not increase negative impacts on the environment because they do not change the current scale of dams and reservoirs.

Many countries are taking advantage of available water resources from irrigation lakes to arrange hydropower plants downstream of dams to fully exploit this artificial hydropower source.

Vietnam has more than 7,000 dams and reservoirs in operation to serve for agriculture, industry and daily life, with a total storage capacity of about 14.5 billion cubic meters. It will be a great advantage for Vietnam if the country can build hydroelectric plants behind the dams and reservoirs.

Hoach suggests it is necessary to survey all irrigation dams and reservoirs to see whether building hydroelectric plants behind them is possible to increase flexible power resources for the system.

As for pumped storage hydropower, Hoach said Vietnam has nine locations that can be built pumped storage hydropower plants with a total capacity of 12,500MW.

According to the PDP VIII, there will be 2,700MW of capacity from pumped storage hydropower by 2030 and the number will increase to 39,700MW by 2050.