Planned power cuts place Haiphong firms in the dark

Domestic and foreign-invested firms reacted fiercely to the proposed plans to cut down on power consumption.

According to Haiphong City Power Supply Steering Committee, the Northern Power Corporation would provide a maximum capacity of 487 megawatts per day to Haiphong from March to June 2011, but the city would need around 550MW per day.

Thus businesses in Haiphong would have 84 per cent of power demand met and they needed to take measures to cut down 16 per cent of their daily power consumption.

Besides, the Haiphong Power Department regulated that businesses using more than the 84 per cent benchmark would incur power cuts on the following day.

Power cuts will also take place in rotation among city’s diverse areas from March.

Deputy director of Vietnam National Chemical Group’s DAP fertiliser plant Le Tham Duong said the 84 per cent level was ‘inappropriate’. “It is not simple to get the DAP plant kicked-start. Besides, the whole production chain would stop operating at sudden power cuts, incurring significant losses,” he said.

Deputy director of Dinh Vu Port Authority Cao Van Tinh suggested applying power-cuts in several consecutive days in a week then provide businesses with sufficient power in the remaining days. “In doing so, companies can still ensure production,” Tinh said.

He added that power-cuts would cause serious goods stagnation at ports.