No more blackouts, PM orders after consumer outcry

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has asked relevant agencies, localities and state-owned utilities to ensure there is no repetition of this year’s early summer blackouts.

The power outages had drawn outcries from businesses and individual consumers in the northern region.

In a Monday dispatch, Chinh ordered leaders of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises (CMSC), local governments and energy companies to work out plans to ensure continuous power supply for production and consumption.

“Electricity shortages are absolutely impermissible,” the dispatch said.

To ensure power supply for the North, home to major manufacturing hubs, Chinh reiterated that work on the 500-kilovolt Quang Trach-Pho Noi transmission line be completed by June 2024.

This 514-kilometer line, bringing power from the central province of Quang Binh to the northern province of Hung Yen is being built at an estimated cost of VND23 trillion ($946 million).

Earlier this year, the PM had ordered the industry ministry to finish building the transmission line in one year, half of the original time needed, after the northern region suffered power shortages that hit thousands of manufacturers and millions of households.

He also requested the CMSC to instruct Vietnam Electricity (EVN), Petrovietnam, and mining giant Vinacomin to accelerate work on major power projects like the Block B electricity-gas project and the incomplete Long Phu 1 1,200-MW power plant.

Petrovietnam, Vinacomin and military-run coal miner Dong Bac Corporation should ensure sufficient coal, gas and fuel supplies for power plants, the PM said.

The industry ministry has estimated 2024 power demand at 306.26 billion kWh. It has asked national utility EVN to build more transmission lines to import electricity from Laos.