Vietnam

The Phongsubthavy Road and Bridge Construction and Dongfang Electric International Company have agreed to build hydropower plants with a combined installed generation capacity of over 88 MW.

A circular has been completed to regulate the competitive power market including responsibility for all players.

Norwegian SN Power Company intends to buy big amounts of stakes of hydropower plants in Vietnam, which is believed to activate the hydropower merger and acquisition market.

HCMC will set aside an amount of VND1 trillion for renewable energy projects following approval from the Ministry of Industry and Trade for the city’s power development plan for the 2011-2015 period.As part of this plan, HCMC will build a plant producing power from garbage in Hiep Phuoc Waste Treatment Complex in Cu Chi District with a maximum capacity of 40MW. The city will also focus on generating energy from garbage, wind, solar power not only to produce energy but also to solve environmental problems. Besides, HCMC will need up to around VND21 trillion to invest in its power grid, including low- and medium-voltage power cables, 110-kV and 220-kV power lines, to serve the demand for its socioeconomic development. Under the plan, the maximum capacity of the city’s power system will reach 4,800MW in 2015 with a commercial electricity output of around 28.3 billion kWh and an annual growth rate of 12.9%. In this period, HCMC will also put underground medium-voltage cables in new urban areas and industrial parks, including all power cables in districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 and 11. Meanwhile, Go Vap, Tan Binh, Binh Thanh, Phu Nhuan and Thu Duc districts will have 85% of cables underground and the ratio for other districts is 20-40%.  

Ho Chi Minh City will set aside an amount of VND1 trillion for renewable energy projects for the 2011-2015 period.

A national consultation workshop on the environmental and social impact assessments of the Nam Ou 2 dam in Luang Prabang province was held in Vientiane last week.

Electricity of Viet Nam is seeking loans from international finance organisations and domestic commercial banks to fund power transmission projects.

First Solar's decison to halt the construction of the solar panel in Ho Chi Minh City has raised a worry that it may  stop investing in  Vietnam or narrow the project scale.

SN Power, a Norwegian government-controlled renewable energy developer, is aiming to become an industrial investor in Vietnam within the next two years by targetting local hydropower assets.

Electricity rates in Vietnam will remain unchanged this month, according to Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai.

Vietnam's president agreed on greater cooperations with South Korea on nuclear power plant construction.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dũng has approved the list of investment project of power transmission network 1 worth $155.6 million, of which $130 million is planned to borrow from Asian Development Bank.

First Solar would delay $300 million factory in Cu Chi district, Ho Chi Minh City.

Electricity of Vietnam invested up to 2.644 trillion dong in October.

Japan and Vietnam on Monday reaffirmed their plan to build a nuclear power plant in the Southeast Asian country using Japanese technology, even as Tokyo still struggles to put the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years under control. Last October, energy-hungry Vietnam accepted Japan as a partner in the construction of two nuclear reactors in Ninh Thuan province in central Vietnam. But in March, a massive earthquake and tsunami knocked out the cooling functions at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, triggering fuel rod meltdowns, explosions and radiation leakage. A joint statement, released after Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda met with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung, said Japan was committed to enhance nuclear safety by sharing lessons learnt from the Fukushima accident. “The Vietnamese side, welcoming such Japan’s efforts, … expressed its strong desire for the provisions of nuclear technologies from Japan,” the statement said. “The Japanese side expressed its intention to provide Vietnam with the technologies that represent the world’s highest level of nuclear safety,” it added. Exporting social infrastructure, such as high-speed railway systems and nuclear power generation systems, is a pillar of Japan’s ruling Democratic Party’s growth strategy. But the Fukushima accident shattered the public’s trust on the safety of nuclear power generation and raised doubt over such strategy.

Vietnam's small and medium scaled hydropower plant projects with the designed capacity of less than 30 MW have not pushed through because of lack of capital.