Business

Foreign investors covet Vietnamese power sector

Not only power groups like Sembcorp, Tata Power, Graham Bell and Associates Limited – GBA, but also multi-field groups like Samsung and Sumitomo are planning to pour capital into power projects in Vietnam. The Vietnam Net online newspaper reports.

Not only power groups like Sembcorp, Tata Power, Graham Bell andAssociates Limited – GBA, but also multi-field groups like Samsung andSumitomo are planning to pour capital into power projects in Vietnam.The Vietnam Net online newspaper reports.

AMemorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the cooperation in theinfrastructure development was signed between the Ministry of Planningand Investment (MPI) and Samsung C&T in late September.

The South Korean Samsung group recent expressed its special interestin the power projects in Vietnam. It has sent staff to the centralprovince of Nghe An to learn about the investment opportunities in theQuynh Lap 2 thermopower plant in the Dong Hoi Industrial Zone.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Quynh Lap 2 is justone of the five power plants in the central and southern regions Samsungwould consider.

The other fours including the VungAng 3 in Ha Tinh, Quang Trach 2 in Quang Binh, Song Hau 3 in Hau Giangand Kien Luong in Kien Giang provinces.

The GermanEnercon Group, specialising in manufacturing equipments for wind powerprojects, has committed to mobilise capital and provide equipments tothe wind power project in Soc Trang province.

The project, capitalised at 1 billion euro (1.3 billion USD), has an expected capacity of 2,600MW.

Analysts have commented that it’s now the right time for foreigninvestors to develop power projects, when a competitive electricitymarket takes shape and will be put into operation in the near future.

Foreign investors understand that the electricity demand in Vietnam isvery big while the domestic power plants cannot meet the demand.

Singaporean Sembcorp Utilities Pte Ltd. belonging to Sembcorp isplanning to develop a coal-fired thermopower plant in Quang Ngaiprovince, capitalised at 2 billion USD.

Inmid-September, Sembcorp and the Ministry of Industry and Trade signed anMOU on the development of the Dung Quat thermopower plant with thecapacity of 1,200MW in Quang Ngai.

The plant, oncebecoming operational, would use import coal. The first power generationunit is expected to become operational in September 2020, while thewhole plant would be operational in March 2021, providing some 7 billionkWh of electricity every year.

The Van PhongThermopower Plant No. 1 project with a designed capacity of 2,640MW inKhanh Hoa province is now under the negotiations. The Khanh Hoaprovincial people’s committee has had a working session with JapaneseSumitomo and Vietnamese Hanoinco on the implementation of the project.

The representative from Sumitomo group said at theworking session that the group is conducting negotiations for a BOT(build, operation, transfer) contract with the Ministry of Industry andTrade.

It is expected that the contract would besigned in the first quarter of 2014 before the administrative proceduresget completed in the second quarter of 2014. If everything goessmoothly, the project would kick off in August 2015 and becomeoperational in October 2019.

According to TataPower, a subsidiary of Indian Tata Group, the company has got the nodfrom the Vietnamese Government to carry out the feasibility study on the1,200MW Long Phu 2 thermopower plant in Soc Trang province.

Under the power development master plan, Vietnam will have anadditional 5,000MW to its capacity every year from now to 2020.-VNA

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