Vietnam needs $10B to upgrade grid by 2020

Vietnam is seeking US$6 billion to upgrade its power transmission grid as demand for power consumption continues to increase.

Vietnam's National Power Transmission Corporation has called for more support from the World Bank as well as from the Government and relevant ministries to get access to official development assistance or commercial loans.

An estimated $760 million is needed each year to invest in power transmission projects to keep it from being overloaded.

The sector needed around $10 billion to develop the power transmission grid by 2020, but only $4 billion is in the goverment coffers for the project, according to Luu Viet Tien of the National Power Transmission Corporation.

Chairman of the Board of NPT Dang Phan Truong pointed out that at the moment, the capacity of a 220-500kv transmission line system had failed to keep pace with the development of power source projects and consumption demand.

Increasing the capacity of the power transmission line system was urgent to meet the rising demand, Truong said.

The demand for power consumption was expected to increase at a rate of more than 14 percent annually during the period of 2011-15.

Truong said that the NPT started to turn the electricity network into a smart grid by applying modern technologies in operation and control to increase capacity.

According to Tien, the price of power transmission should occupy from 10 to 12 per cent of the electricity price. “The current price of power transmission, 6 percent of the electricity price, is not enough for future investments.”

From 2013 to 2016, the NPT planned to implement 36 new transmission projects nationwide with the total investment of $700 million.

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