The Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) has pledged to effectively operate hydropower plants across the country as part of efforts to ensure adequate power supply for production and daily life during 2014’s dry season.

The group has asked construction units to speed up progress of key projects. Accordingly, it will put into use five new turbines at both thermo- and hydro-electric power plants within this year, which have a combined capacity of 1,656MW.

Meanwhile, five projects will be launched to build three more thermo-electric power plants and expand two hydro-electric power plants, which are expected to add 2,555MW to the group’s total output.

In addition to power generation projects, the EVN is accelerating the pace of construction on 192 transmission systems, particularly six key systems to ensure power supply for the southern region.

According to EVN announcement on March 5, the group’s average power output is estimated at 391 million kWh per day this month.

It generated over 9.4 billion kWh of electricity in February, driving the total output in the first two months of 2014 to 19.79 billion kWh, up 5.5 percent from the same period last year.

It also coordinated with the General Department of Irrigation to implement three times of supplying water from Hoa Binh, Thac Ba and Tuyen Quang reservoirs to serve agricultural production in the northern region.-VNA