EVN proposes purchasing wind power from Laos

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam Electricity (EVN) has submitted a document to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) regarding the proposal to import wind power from Laos to Quang Tri province.

EVN urged the ministry to review and submit to the Prime Minister the proposal to import electricity from the Truong Son Wind Power Plant, including additional planning for transmission lines. The purchase price for electricity from this project is 6.95 US cents/kWh, equivalent to about 1,700 VND/kWh.

The ministry said it has received a document requesting feedback from relevant ministries and localities on the proposal to purchase wind power from the plant, with a capacity of 250MW, from Bolikhamsai province in Laos to Vietnam, as proposed by EVN.

According to the ministry, the plant is expected to start operation in the fourth quarter of 2025.

"To import electricity from this plant to Vietnam, a new 220kV double-circuit transmission line will be constructed, with a length of 75km from the Truong Son Wind Power Plant's 220kV substation connecting to the 220kV busbar at the Do Luong 220kV substation in central Nghe An province, Vietnam," said the ministry in an official statement.

To meet the project completion schedule in 2025, the project's investor, the Vietnam Laos Energy Investment and Development Corporation, has sent a document to EVN proposing to sell electricity from this project to Vietnam. The investor suggests investing the entire grid connection project to connect the plant to the Vietnam's power system using the project's funds.

In an earlier development, in a report to the minsitry, EVN stated that the governments of Laos and Vietnam had agreed to import 1,000MW of electricity from Laos to Vietnam by 2020. The imported electricity volume is expected to be around 3,000MW by 2025 and about 5,000MW by 2030. As of the end of October, the Prime Minister has approved the proposal to import electricity from various sources in Laos with a total capacity of 2,689MW.

"EVN has signed 19 power purchase agreements (PPA) to buy electricity from 26 Laotian power plants with a total capacity of 2,240MW. Among them, seven projects are commercially operational with a total capacity of 806MW, and it is expected that an additional 1,171MW can be put into operation by 2025," according to the ministry.

The report indicates that, so far, the total approved capacity of electricity sources in Laos that can be imported into Vietnam and put into operation by 2025 is only about 1,977MW, much lower than the import scale stated in the memorandum of understanding./.