Power plants which have the total investment capital of up to tens of
trillions of dong have been left idle. Meanwhile, the government is still
calling for more investment in power projects, while EVN has been insisting on
raising the sale prices.



They problem lies in the mechanism?



In fact, the electricity sale to China has been existing for years;
however, no proper solution has been found to stop the problem.



There are now two 110KV electricity networks in Lao Cai province,
including one in Lao Cai City and the other in Tang Loong, while the big
additional charge gathers in Tang Loong. Therefore, when the 110KV transmission
line linking Lao Cai and Tang Loong broke down, the Lao Cai province lost 80
percent of the load capacity (100MW). Meanwhile, most of big hydropower plants,
including Muong Hum and Nam Khoa 3 all use the line As a result, electricity has
been transmitted to China.



The lack of a 220KV station in Lao Cai has made the situation more
serious. In fact, Cong an nhan dan has quoted its sources as saying that the
station has been built, but it has not been put into operation, since there has
been no electric wire due to the tardiness in site clearance.



The Northern Power Corporation is in charge of purchasing electricity,
while it is the National Power Transmission Corporation which takes
responsibility for building transmission networks, while the provincial
authorities need to take responsibility for site clearance.



A comprehensive measure needed



The Northern Power Corporation has announced that a new network will be
put into operation which will consume a big proportion of generation of the
plants. However, the problem still has not been settled yet. An officer of the
corporation said that even if the network is put into operation, it would be
able to handle 100MW at maximum.



“The power plants would be able to run at 80 percent of the capacity only.
I am afraid that in July and August, when it rains, power plants will have
excessive water to generate power, the electricity will have to go to China,” he
said.



According to the Lao Cai provincial Department for Industry and Trade, by
the end of 2011, the total electricity capacity of local power plants would
reach 400MW, which is triple the current capacity. The figure would be 750 MW by
the end of 2013.



Meanwhile, the electricity consumption in the area is forecast to be much
smaller than the supply, and if there is no transmission line, the current
situation will not be improved–power plants have electricity in excess, but
they cannot sell electricity, while other areas are seriously lacking
electricity.



“We have tried to contact the National Power Transmission Corporation to
learn about the building of the transmission lines, but we have been told to
keep waiting,” an official said.



According to the Lao Cai provincial Department for Industry and Trade,
under the power network development plan, the Lao Cai 2 110 kV - 40 MVA
transformer station will be invested by EVN. However, as EVN has not had
investment plan yet, the investors of power plants have decided to contribute
capital and empowered the Northern Power Corporation to build the station.
However, too many problems have arisen in the implementation of the project



Besides this, the construction of the 110KV Tang Long – Van Ban – Than
Uyen backbone line, the 220KV Bao Thang transformer station and the 220KV Bao
Thang-Yen Bai line has also been going very slowly.



Cong An Nhan Dan