As many as 97.83 percent of households in rural areas nationwide have accessed power services so far, as a result of the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN)’s efforts to realise the Party and State’s policy on rural electrification over the past 15 years.

As one of the pioneers in the programme, the Southern Power Corporation (EVN SPC), a subsidiary of the EVN, has invested more than 5.7 trillion VND on power projects in 1,270 southern communes, benefiting 960,271 local households.

According to Pham Ngoc Le, EVN SPC Vice Director General, to date electricity have been supplied to 100 percent of communes, wards and towns, a remarkable rise from 70 percent in 1996. As many as 98.44 percent of households had access to power, he added.

At the same time, the EVN SPC provided electricity serving agriculture across the Mekong Delta region, meeting the demand of electricity for daily activities and irrigation, he said.

The firm worked on a 172-billion VND project to build 371km middle voltage transmission line and install 936 transformer stations with a capacity of 90,493 KVA, providing electricity for 936 water stations that help irrigate 165,000 hectares of paddy field in An Giang province.

The Mekong Delta province of Long An, where 82 percent of local residents live in rural areas, is among the localities that benefit most from the project.

After 15 years, 99.3 percent of local rural households enjoyed power services, helping improve their living conditions and production.

So far, Long An has launched 68 small-scaled water supply stations to irrigate 10,915 hectares of farming areas.

However, Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, Vice Director of the Long An Power Company, highlighted the difficulty of supplying electricity to remote and mountainous areas.
A high power supplying cost, which is estimated at 80 million VND per household, is also a barrier that hinders the access of power to the areas, he said, adding that the province could only afford power supply to two communes each year.

In 2015, Long An is set to bring power to 31 communes to meet the standard on electricity of a new-style rural area, up from 25 communes currently. Total investment for the electrification programme in the province is expected to reach nearly 991 billion VND until 2020, doubling that of the 1998-2014 period.-VNA