POWER March 2012 - 59

POWER IN VIETNAM
mt compared with $109.29/mt for steam or
thermal coal.
" While it is possible to use hard coal for
power, it is a little like feeding caviar to
chickens-it works but is not a good idea, "
says David Dapice, an economist at the Harvard
Kennedy School's Vietnam Program.
" If anthracite can be exported from Vietnam
at premium prices, it would certainly make
sense not to become self-sufficient in coal,
but rather to export the high priced coal and
import the cheaper coal. "
Gas Power Poised to Increase
About a third of Vietnam's capacity is generated
by oil- and gas-fired power plants,
and by 2020, gas-fired plants will total
10,400 MW of installed generation capacity,
accounting for 17% of the nation's
power production, according to the National
Gas Master Plan issued in March 2011 (Figure
6). By 2030, gas capacity will increase
just a fraction, to 11,300 MW, making up
about 10% of total capacity. To diversify
fuel sources for power, Vietnam plans to develop
power plants using liquefied natural
gas (LNG): 2,000 MW worth to be built by
2020 and 6,000 MW by 2030.
The Master Plan VII also foresees building
new pipelines to supply new power
plants, a majority of which are planned
for the southern part of the country. This
means that gas demand for power generation
could triple to between 22 billion and
29 billion cubic meters by 2025, compared
to just 8 billion cubic meters in 2010.
As with its coal problem, Vietnam may
need to overcome a gas supply challenge to
ensure reliability. Current and probable gas
reserves fall short of the nation's growing gas
demand, and the Ministry of Industry and
Trade has been studying the costly possibility
of importing LNG.
Some experts opine that Vietnam has
enough gas to fuel future supply, pointing
out that PetroVietnam produces about 9
billion cubic meters of gas per year. They
say that the problem resides in a lack of
coordination between Vietnam's power
sector and its gas sector to achieve common
objectives toward competitive energy
supply. Records show that PetroVietnam
only sells 5.7 billion cubic meters to EVN
for power generation, for example, not
the 6.6 billion cubic meters EVN said (at
a Dec. 7 meeting discussing future power
supply) it needs to ensure that state-owned
power plants are adequately fueled.
EVN added that it has been using oil at a
steep price to run power units to make up for
the gas shortfall, and it will continue to do so
if it cannot get more gas.
As well as ordering PetroVietnam, EVN,
March 2012 | POWER
www.powermag.com
57
and Vinacomin to address future coal and gas
shortfalls, officials have urged the government
to further raise electricity prices to enable
EVN to buy the supplies it needs and to
tackle site clearances for electricity network
projects with exigency.
An Atomic Future
Among Vietnam's broader ambitions is
its goal to introduce nuclear power to its
supply portfolio. That goal, which dates
back as far as the early 1980s, includes
developing 8,000 MW of nuclear capacity
by 2025 and 15,000 MW by 2030 at up
to eight sites in five provinces. Following
passage of a general law on nuclear energy
in mid-2008, the country made public that
it would begin building two reactors (Russian-built
VVER-1000s, totalling 2,000
MW) at Phuoc Dinh in the southern Ninh
Thuan province by 2014 for operation by
2020 and 2,000 MW more (Japanese Gen
III reactors) at nearby Vinh Hai, which
could come online as soon as 2021.
The government then plans to add four
more units to these two sites and to build
six units at three or four central sites in the
provinces of Quang Ngai (Duc Thang or
Duc Chanh), Binh Dinh (Hoai My), and Phu
Yen (Xuan Phuong). According to the World
Nuclear Association, that could mean at least
one reactor coming online each year from
2020 through 2027.
The new build plans have generated heated
competition among Russia's Atomstroyexport,
Toshiba-owned Westinghouse, AREVA,
the Korea Electric Power Co., and China's
Guangdong Nuclear Power group.
Under terms of an October 2010 contract,
Russia will finance at least 85% of
Vietnam's nuclear projects, and Russian
state company Atomstroyexport will build
the first project at Phuoc Dinh in Ninh Thuan
province for Electricity Vietnam, using
a VVER-1000 or 1200 design, starting
in 2014. The turnkey project could come
online in 2020. An agreement signed with
Japan will see two other reactors built at
Vinh Hai in Ninh Thuan province by a
consortium of Japanese companies; Japan
is expected to finance 85% of that project.
As well as supplying Vietnam with nuclear
fuel, Russia is expected to reprocess
fuel used by the Russian-built plants, though
wastes will be returned to Vietnam eventually.
Vietnam is also reportedly prospecting for
uranium in the central Quang Nam province,
where resources of 8,000 mt of uranium have
been reported as being recoverable.
Fuel supply and waste storage aside,
the country's nuclear ambitions could be
hampered by several critical challenges,
as Doan Phac, deputy director general of
the Vietnam Atomic Energy Agency-an
entity overseen by the Ministry of Science
and Technology-told attendees at an International
Atomic Energy Agency forum
for small and midsize nuclear reactors in
Vienna last October. First, Vietnam lacks
the human resources in almost all rel6.
Stepping on the gas. One of Vietnam's newer gas plants is the 760-MW Nhon Trach 2
combined cycle power plant in the south of Dong Nai province. It started commercial operation on
Oct. 16, 2011, after a construction period of only 28.5 months. This made it one of the fastest-track
projects in Asia, according to Siemens, which supplied the power block. Courtesy: Siemens

http://www.powermag.com

POWER March 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER March 2012