Five coal power projects are facing difficulties in implementing and arranging capital, but no investor voluntarily stops the project, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
This fact is mentioned by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in the report that has just been sent to the Government for approval of the national electricity development planning project for the period of 2021 – 2030, with a vision to 2050 (Power planning VIII).
The ministry said that through the review by the end of September, there were 39 coal power plants with a total capacity of 24,674 MW in operation. Currently, there are 12 coal power projects (with a capacity of 13,792 MW) assigned to investors, which are in the process of being prepared for investment and construction. In which, 5 projects will definitely be put into operation, including Thai Binh 2, Quang Trach 1, Van Phong 1 and Vung Ang 2. Particularly, Long Phu 1 project is still negotiating to remove obstacles with the contractor.
Two projects An Khanh and Na Duong 2, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, have plans to borrow domestic capital for further implementation.
With the remaining 5 coal-fired power projects (capacity of 6,800 MW) being prepared for investment, there are 4 BOT projects, the investor is a foreign enterprise, including Song Hau 2, Vinh Tan 3, Nam Dinh 1 and Quang Treat. A project invested by a domestic enterprise is the Cong Thanh project.
The common difficulty of these projects, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, is arranging capital and changing investors during the implementation process, but “no investor voluntarily stops the project”. Therefore, in order to avoid legal risks and compensation, the Ministry proposes to keep the above 5 projects in the draft Power Plan VIII, especially BOT projects with foreign investors.
In fact, these projects have spent a lot of time, human resources and costs to implement after being approved for investment policy. For example, in Nam Dinh 1 project, the investor has advanced to Nam Dinh province 6 million USD to build a resettlement area and support crops. Or the investor of the Song Hau 2 project has paid the People’s Committee of Hau Giang province more than 343.2 billion VND in compensation, support and resettlement…
Therefore, instead of giving up halfway, a representative of the Electricity and Renewable Energy Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that most of them affirmed that they would make efforts to overcome difficulties and try to arrange capital to continue implementing these projects. .
About the difficulty of each project, Song Hau 2 project (2,000 MW) has been assigned by the Government to Toyo In Group Berhad (Malaysia) as an investor since March 2013. BOT contracts, electricity purchase and sale, land lease… signed in December 2020. The investor has paid the People’s Committee of Hau Giang province over VND 343.2 billion for compensation, support and resettlement, but has not yet completed the capital arrangement and is requesting an extension of the mandatory financial closing date to September. 6/2023.
Vinh Tan 2 thermal power plant project (1,800 MW), Pacific Group Joint Stock Company (Pacific) accounting for 22% of the capital has withdrawn from the project, but the procedures have not been completed. This project is still looking for a plan to change ownership shareholders, negotiate capital arrangement.
Similarly, Nam Dinh 1 coal power project (1,200 MW) was approved for investment policy in April 2017, and is currently looking for a new investor to replace it after a foreign shareholder withdrew capital.
The most difficult is the Quang Tri coal power project (1,200 MW), which has been assigned by the Government to the investor – Electricity of Thailand International (EGATi) since August 2013. However, this project has difficulty in arranging capital, so it is stopping negotiating implementation contracts.
Cong Thanh thermal power project (600MW) cannot arrange capital, the investor and Thanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee are proposing to convert to using LNG, increasing the capacity to 1,500 MW. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, this project is not balanced in the coal power structure of the Power Plan VIII, but it is still in the list. The conversion of this project to LNG power will be considered during the implementation of Power Plan VIII.
Reviewing earlier, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed to remove 14,120 MW of coal power from the power plan VIII, of which 8,420 MW was invested by state-owned enterprises; BOT project is 4,500 MW and has not yet been assigned to investors 1,200 MW.
Currently, coal-fired power accounts for about 31% of the total installed capacity of the power system, about 21,383 MW. EVN’s data shows that, in the first 8 months of this year, thermal power contributed nearly 71.7 billion kWh, accounting for more than 39% of the electricity output of the whole system.
Mr. Minh
