Wind powered projects

Regarding the wrongdoing at the VND34 trillion Da Nang – Quang Ngai Expressway project, many foreigners left for their home countries before the case was prosecuted. Of the 36 defendants in the case, one was Takao Inami, born in 1949, former chief consultant from Japan, and director of the project’s consultancy and supervision office. A services contract dated April 26, 2013 was agreed to be by OC-KEI-SMEC (Oriental Consultants Co. Ltd (OC) – Katahira & Engineers International (Kei) – Smec International PTY Co. Ltd (Smec), the joint name of construction consultants and VEC, on organizing the construction supervision of the bidding packages of the Da Nang – Quang Ngai Expressway project Phase 1. Under the agreement, OC-KEI-SMEC set up a project consultancy and supervision office. The consultancy units, based on technical criteria and project requirements, would supervise the project execution from the implementation of the design to input material selection to supervision and acceptance of construction works. Takao Inami was appointed as chief engineer and director of the consultancy and supervision office. He was the person with the highest executive power, together with engineers, foreign and Vietnamese, to direct, manage, supervise, check and accept construction items to ensure that the construction packages were implemented in accordance with regulations and that construction work could be fulfilled satisfying technical requirements. The investigation agency believes that at the Da Nang – Quang Ngai Expressway project (phase 1), the accused directly accepted materials, construction items and construction work that were not in accordance with the required technical standards in many construction packages. These were prohibited behaviors in construction activities and construction supervision consultancy activities, resulting in the poor quality of the work, causing damages during operation. Takao Inami was determined as causing the damage …

[Read more...] about Foreigners disappear before violations at huge project are exposed

A wind farm of Trung Nam Group in Ninh Thuận Province in the central region of Vietnam. The country aims to have 44 percent of its power from renewable energy — Photo courtesy of Trung Nam Group On February 9, the MoIT issued a draft national electricity development planning project for 2021-2030, with a vision to 2045 or the power master plan VIII and asked other ministries and agencies to contribute their ideas. With forecasts that Viet Nam's GDP growth will reach an average of 6.6 percent per year in 2031-2045 and 5.7 percent per year in 2031-2045, the MoIT forecast the supply of commercial electricity to reach 491 billion kWh by 2030, and 877 billion kWh by 2045. The draft expected by 2030, the total installed capacity of electricity sources in the country would reach 137.2 GW including 27 percent from coal-fired thermal power, 21 percent from gas thermal power, 18 percent from hydroelectricity, 29 percent from wind power, solar and renewable energy and 4 percent from the imported sources and 1 percent from other types of energy from storage devices. The MoIT’s draft said by 2045, the total installed capacity will reach nearly 276.7 GW including 18 percent from coal-fired thermal power, 24 percent from gas thermal power, 9 percent from hydroelectricity, 44 percent from wind power, solar and renewable energy and 2 percent from the imported sources and 3 percent from other types of energy from storage devices. The power master plan VIII encourages the development of renewable energy and discourages hydroelectricity. Renewables made up 13 percent of power in 2020 and are aimed to make up 30 percent by 2030 and 44 percent by 2045. Regarding the power grid development program, the plan proposes to continue building the 500kV power transmission system to transmit electricity from major power source centres in the Central Highlands, south-central, north-central and central regions to the large load centres in HCM City and the Red River Delta. It also …

[Read more...] about Vietnam needs more than US$128 billion to develop electricity in the next nine years

Khanh Hoa province, on the south-central coast, has recently been leading the way in attaining attraction from both domestic and foreign financiers when it comes to the gas and electricity sector. Among the suitors is one from the United States, proposing the Millennium gas power project with a forecast capacity of 14,400MW and 17 million tonnes of storage for liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year. Joining in are Embark United Co., Ltd. and US Quantum Corporation to establish a 6,000MW gas power venture and a port warehouse to receive and process six million tonnes of LNG per year. Japanese investors did also not ignore the opportunity to develop gas power projects in Khanh Hoa, as Sumitomo Corporation proposed to invest in a 3,000MW gas power scheme and a storage system for three million tonnes of LNG per year, while J-Power Co., Ltd. wants to invest in a gas turbine power project with a capacity of 3,000MW. Despite a slightly slower approach, the province is also seeing the presence of more domestic investors, led by Electricity of Vietnam which proposed a 6,000MW gas power project, while Petrolimex wants to build a warehouse for around three million tonnes of LNG per year. Those involved in the gas power sector all understand that developing such a project in Vietnam is a difficult task, as the country is still in the process of building its Power Development Plan 8 (PDP8). Nevertheless, the total installed capacity of power sources by 2030 is supposed to reach 137.2GW, of which gas accounts for 21 per cent. Tran Ky Phuc, director of the Institute of Energy under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) – the unit in charge of building the PDP8 – said that electricity demand in this plan is calculated lower than in the revised PDP7, reducing the forecast amount by 3-4 billion kWh in 2020 and 9-10 billion kWh in 2030. Realistic needs The development of gas power sources in Vietnam is the result of the exhaustion of fossil fuels, the …

[Read more...] about Full steam ahead for LNG capacities to omit other fossil fuels?