Son La: nearly 98 percent of households to access power

Son La (VNA) - The northern mountainous province of Son La aims to raise the rate of households accessing the national electricity grid to 97.5 percent this year.

Thanks to efforts made by local authorities and the power sector, all the communes in the province have gained access to the national grid, and the rate of rural families, especially those in remote and border areas and ethnic minority communities accessing electricity, is on the rise.

Power facilities have been improved, significantly contributing to the locality’s socio-economic development and poverty reduction.

An additional 26 power plants with a total capacity of 3,150 MW were put into operation over the last five years, generating an increase of 1,000 kwh of electricity a year, reported the provincial People’s Committee.

The increased development of power plants is helping bring electricity to remote and disadvantaged areas of the locality.

As of the end of 2015, about 232,200 households or 86.7 percent of the total in Son La were being supplied power, including 190,000 of those in rural areas. “We have reached breakthroughs in bringing power to rural areas”, said Le Quang Thai, director of the Son La electricity company.

Son La has set a target of bringing power to an additional 28,600 local households by 2020.-VNA