Author: Do Quyen (page 2 of 2)

Northern Vietnam’s desperate power shortage

 

 

It was the first time in nearly 10 years. After 8 p.m. on June 4, he received a message from his manager saying he would not have to come for work the next day since a power cut was scheduled for 5 a.m. to 5 p.m.

He said many colleagues at the Yen Phong Industrial Park in the province and the Thang Long Industrial Park in Hanoi have been given alternate days off for the same reason.

In many places in the north, businesses are having to suspend production because of power outages.

Recent evenings at Hoan Kiem Lake, the heart of the capital city, have been likened to “Earth Hour” days as early as lighting for flower gardens, sidewalks and around the lake is turned off at 7 or 8 p.m.

The area at the intersection of Trang Tien – Dinh Tien Hoang streets, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi, in the evening is dark because street lights and billboards are turned off. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh

Turning off lights to save electricity has become the norm in Hanoi and many other cities and provinces on the recommendation of state utility Vietnam Electricity (EVN).

Street lights are partially switched off while electricity is completely cut off in many residential areas.

Power utilities were forced into emergency load shedding in some places in Hanoi and northern provinces this month to ensure the safety of the system.

The Bac Giang Province would reduce electricity for daily use to prioritize industrial production from June 6, Le Anh Duong, chairman of its People’s Committee, said at a meeting with businesses.

Do Thi Lan, deputy head of the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Affairs, said on the sidelines of a session on June 5: “The power cut is not just for one or two hours but also both during the day and night, and so it seriously affects people’s lives and the socioeconomic situation.

“Such an electricity shortage is very worrying.”

The hot season has just begun, and the economy is recovering, but many businesses still lack orders and some production and business areas continue to languish, she said.

In April, EVN had warned the north could face electricity shortages equivalent to 1,600-4,900 megawatts during the summer.

At a government press conference on June 4, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said shortages were already upon the north, and affected both industrial production and daily life.

Tran Viet Hoa, director of the industry ministry’s Electricity Regulatory Authority, said on June 7 that the availability in the northern region, including imports, was only 17,500-17,900 MW equivalent, or 59.2% of installed capacity.

Demand is currently at 20,000 MW and could increase to 23,500-24,000 MW due to the hot weather, he said.

“The north’s electricity system faces a risk of shortage most times of the day.”

50% of the lights on Hanoi’s Long Bien Bridge are turned off and so people depend on the lights in their vehicles to move. Photo by VnExpress

‘Hot spot’ in the north

The spike in electricity consumption due to the heat wave is the main reason cited by the ministry of Industry and Trade and EVN for the current shortages.

The average electricity demand in the country in May was nearly 820 million kilowatt-hours a day, or more than 20% higher than in April.

On May 19 it was nearly 924 million kWh, 10.5% higher than a year earlier.

In Hanoi, where there have been regular power outages in many areas since early June, consumption spiked last month and early this month.

The Hanoi Power Corporation said the average consumption in May had been more than 75.4 million kWh, up 22.5% from April. As of June 4 the average consumption reached at nearly 88.5 million kWh.

But supply has been well short.

Power in the north is mainly derived from hydroelectric and thermal plants.

But hydropower production, which accounted for 43% of supply as of May, has slumped due to extreme weather which has dries up large reservoirs.

Their average production has halved from last year to 12-15% of total supply.

By the end of May they only had enough water to generate 1.23 billion kWh of electricity, enough for four days’ consumption based on the peak demand of 313.6 million kWh on May 22.

As of June 3 the dams at the Lai Chau, Hua Na, Thac Ba, Son La, Tuyen Quang plants only had enough water to generate electricity for 0.4-0.9 days.

At Lai Chau and Son La, among Vietnam’ largest plants, water in the dams has gone below the dead storage level, a major operational risk.

In all 11 plants have shut down, summarily taking 5,000 MW out of the grid.

Another reason for the power shortage is that some coal-fired power plants, which account for 48% of the electricity supply in the north, have reduced capacity or encountered problems.

As of June 1 units at nine plants, Pha Lai 1 and 2, Cam Pha, Vung Ang 1, Nghi Son 2 BOT, Mao Khe, Quang Ninh, Thang Long, and Son Dong, had problems after operating continuously in hot weather for a long time.

Unit 1 at the Nghi Son 2 BOT project is expected to be repaired by mid-July, according to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Dang Hoang An.

The total capacity of the nine units has been reduced by some 4,200 MW.

Not just because of the heat

For many years the north has not added new plants though a shortage has long been forecast, and so the culprit is not just the weather and mishaps, according to analysts.

It is the region with the highest growth in demand in the country, 9.3% a year in 2016-20 adding up to nearly 6,000 MW.

But the annual growth in generation in the period has only been 4.7%, reaching 4,600 MW.

In the central and southern regions, the growth in power generation capacity has been many times higher than demand.

Construction of most new large power plants in the north such as Na Duong I, Hai Phong III and Cam Pha III has been tardy due to issues related to project formulation, investor selection, raising capital, and site clearance, giving rise to the specter of power shortages until 2025.

This is acknowledged by the ministry of Industry and Trade in its report to the government on the National Power Development Plan VIII.

This puts great pressure on the inter-regional transmission network, increasing losses and risks, it added.

EVN’s plants account for more than 38% of the country’s supply, with the rest coming from plants belonging to Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group, some BOT facilities, and privately owned renewable sources.

According to Bui Van Thinh, chairman of the Binh Thuan Wind and Solar Energy Association, the National Power Development Plan VII has not been strictly adhered to, with many plants belonging to companies like PVN and TKV not being built due to various reasons, leading to a threat of shortages.

A number of plants such as Na Duong II, Cam Pha III, Hai Phong III, the gas-electricity project chain Block B O Mon, Ca Voi Xanh, and Son My LNG are behind schedule.

Earlier this year the Thai Binh II thermal power plant entered commercial operation after more than a decade of delays.

In its first phase of operation, it is running at only 75% of capacity as technical adjustments are carried out.

Transmission capacity is also an issue, which puts more pressure on supply in the north.

In the revised National Power Development Plan VII, the ministry acknowledged that the operation of power grids faces many difficulties.

In some areas 220-kV and 110-kV power grids are overloaded, posing risks.

Most transmission projects are one or two years behind schedule due to issues mainly related to compensation and site clearance.

It takes several years to build a transmission grid, but only three to six months to build a renewable power plant, and so a mismatch in capacity is inevitable.

Workers from the Long Bien Power Company in Hanoi prepare to handle power grid problems 

The irrational distribution of power plants – for instance, concentrating wind and solar power projects in the central region where electricity demand is low and in the south — also causes regional supply-demand imbalance, affecting the inter-regional transmission network.

According to the ministry, most renewable energy developers and provincial authorities pay attention only to their local power grids and lack an overall view of the regional power system.

Local congestion occurs as a result, reducing renewable energy supply at some point, it said.

Currently the 500-kV north-south transmission line is operating at its peak capacity of 2,500 MW. Sometimes it even operates above this threshold to carry electricity to the north.

Stopgap and long-term solutions

At present, in addition to fully tapping domestic power sources, including renewables, Vietnam is also buying 10-12 million kWh per day from China and Laos.

According to the ministry, the imports account for only 2.7% of the daily demand of 445-450 million kWh in the north.

The ministry and EVN have called on domestic and commercial users to conserve electricity during the hot season, but this is hardly a solution for the long run.

According to experts, speeding up work on power generation and grid projects is an urgent requirement.

The National Power Development Plan VIII has just been approved by the government after nearly six years of drafting and revisions. It will serve as the basis for these projects.

Normally, it takes several years to plan and implement power projects, and so authorities need to speed them up to avoid being dependent on the weather, energy expert Dao Nhat Dinh said.

According to legislator Do Thi Lan, the action plan for the electricity plan is still under development, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade needs to speed it up.

Workers repair a transformer at an apartment block in Hanoi

“I suggest the Government makes a comprehensive re-evaluation of strategic plans for ensuring supply of electricity for industrial production and socioeconomic development, and adopts specific solutions to overcome the electricity shortage.

“There must also be a response to climate change and other unusual, extreme weather situations.”

The power plan sets a target of 2,600 MW of rooftop solar power not linked to the grid and thus serving only households by 2030.

The north can generate solar energy for some 1,000 hours a year, mainly in the dry season.

“The mechanism for this (solar power) needs to be clear to avoid overdevelopment while encouraging households to invest in it,” Dinh, the energy expert, said.

While waiting for solutions, many businesses are forced to adjust their plans, shifting production from peak hours to off-peak hours, even nights.

But Hoang Trung Dung, director of the Additives and Petroleum Products Joint Stock Company in Hanoi’s Gia Lam District, said: “We agree with the need to conserve electricity, but cutting off power for industrial production is not a reasonable solution.”

 

How Ikea-style wind turbines power off-grid communities

LAI CHAU, VIETNAM – In November 2019, teachers and students at the Pa U elementary boarding school in Muong Te district in Vietnam’s Lai Chau province had electricity for the first time.

The power came from a rudimentary micro wind turbine system, which was sold and delivered to the school by a local startup named 1516 and assembled by the teachers.

The setup was simple: aluminum tubs affixed to a sturdy wooden rod, linked to a sun box that contains a charge controller, a solar battery and an inverter to generate electricity.

Lai Chau

Source: Mapbox

“The children were so excited to see those turbines in action,” recalled teacher Bui Thi Minh Khuyen. Despite a limited output that can only sustain the school’s energy needs until 10pm, the new power supply has made a vast difference.

Pa U schoolteachers assemble a wind turbine. PHOTO: 1516 energy

Previously, the school only had light bulbs powered by cheap solar panels imported from China. Fans, radios, TVs, phones and laptops were luxuries the school could not power.

These pupils and teachers belong to the remaining 1% of Vietnamese households that still lack access to electricity, which translates to at least 154,000 families, according to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Trade in 2021.

Most of them live in far-flung corners of the country, where the roads and infrastructure are under-developed.

Off-grid renewable energy systems such as 1516’s wind turbines are trying to power these communities, but questions remain over their sustainability.

The 1516 company started their first pilot project in 2015, working with 10 families in a fishing village near the Red River, only a few kilometers from the center of Hanoi.

Poverty and a nomadic lifestyle isolated them from the national grid, so villagers either lived in the dark or purchased power at exorbitant prices through middlemen.

After this experiment’s success, 1516 secured funding from the UK Business Association to supply micro wind turbines for another 50 households in a floating hamlet along the Red River’s banks.

Their affordable, easy-to-assemble products gained the attention of sponsors and since then, 1516 has been able to install more than 1,000 wind turbines for marginalized communities in 15 provinces.

Installing off-grid energy systems in mountainous terrain is a daunting task. Before coming up with a design that allows customers to assemble the devices themselves, the 1516 team had to travel to remote locations to do the setup.

“The trails are narrow, and the cliffs are steep,” architect and 1516 founder Le Vu Cuong told Mekong Eye. “I have made these journeys countless times, yet I am still afraid a single misstep could send me tumbling at any time. Plus, visibility is extremely limited near mountain peaks,” Cuong added.

Robyn Klingler-Vidra, an Associate Professor on entrepreneurship and sustainability at King’s College London and author of Inclusive Innovation, considers 1516 “an excellent example of inclusive innovation,” which she defines as the act of skillfully managing resources and bringing forth novel solutions that deviate from the market-driven economy.

“Mr Le’s background is in architecture – he is a graduate from the Hanoi Architectural University – and so he has used his skills and immersion in local communities to help solve local problems in environmentally friendly ways,” she said.

1516’s wind turbines at the floating hamlet along the Red River in Hanoi. PHOTO: Minh Ha-Duong

A gravel road to sustainability

However, when Mekong Eye reporters visited the floating hamlet in Hanoi in June 2023, most of the wind turbines had stopped working. Also, the wind turbines in Pa U could not weather a storm in 2020.

“From an engineering point of view this is wartime tech: a very inefficient short-term partial solution, barely better than nothing at all,” Minh Ha-Duong, one of the founders of the Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition Social Enterprise (VIETSE), told Mekong Eye via email in June 2023. 

Cuong, the 1516 founder, is acutely aware of his product’s limitations.

“To produce a wind turbine with capacity comparable to a one-by-0.6-meter solar panel, we would need a towering structure reaching 20 meters, with a 2.5-meter blade. The size would be enormous, giving rise to many safety, installation and maintenance problems,” Cuong explained.

Cuong is also aware of the technical and financial limitations, as well as the scalability and replicability of their innovation.

Despite their efforts to expand to Southeast Asia and Africa, 1516 has not been able to export their products to any marginalized communities in those regions, primarily due to cost barriers and variations in climatic conditions.

They also cannot expand to regions that are well connected to the national grid in Vietnam, as their products remain inefficient and commercially unviable compared with the state’s power supply.

1516’s new experimental design that can charge phones and power air monitors. PHOTO: 1516 energy

A temporary solution

But despite a degree of skepticism, off-grid solutions like 1516’s remain the only viable ones. A report from UNICEF in 2022 estimated that about 16,000 schools in Vietnam have no access to electricity.

The Vietnamese government has tried to mobilize international funding for rural electrification projects, but has not secured enough to implement any projects.

Vo Thi Xuan Quyen, a consultant and program officer at Live and Learn, one of the key sponsors of 1516, argued that decentralized renewable energy systems put low-income communities on “a fundamental right on par with the other 99%” in terms of access to electricity.

“If children can study at night and listen to the radio, their mental health improves. Electricity can change a child’s life,” Quyen told Mekong Eye.

“The national grid can never reach 100% of the population,” VIETSE expert Minh Ha-Duong told Mekong Eye. According to Duong, such expectations on the government are unrealistic. Mini grids are another solution, but such systems are expensive and often built by the private sector.

Duong estimates that Vietnam needs at least 5-10 more years for mini grids to be implemented. “[Until then], thousands of villages, hundreds of thousands of households will have to rely on organizations like 1516,” he said.

“Future science, technology and innovation (STI) policy should encourage entrepreneurs and innovators like Mr Le to apply their expertise and work with local communities to meet challenges as they arise,” Klingler-Vidra stressed.

For now, electrification for far-flung communities rests on the shoulders of entrepreneurs and civil society.

“Eight years ago, I went on business trips to remote places without electricity, where I had to charge my phone and laptop at well-off households with generators. Even that was not reliable due to constant battery and engine failure,” teacher Khuyen recalled.

Her eyes are fixed on one goal: to bring electricity to all 14 schools in Muong Te district in Lai Chau.

Wasting waste energy

When one hears of the word pig farm, what image first comes to mind? Most probably filth and rot, the characteristic mind-numbing waft of disintegrating excrement and decaying food.
 
And one would not be far from the truth; every year, Vietnam’s 27 million pigs generate emissions equivalent to around 4.3 million tons of CO2, with strong smells and negative effects on human health. Not only that, just like carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide are greenhouse gases that also contribute to air pollution and global warming. Though data on the total impact of emissions from breeding is still unavailable, research conducted at specific municipals has yielded dire results: household-scale breeders generate 18 times more ammonia than permitted, while large commercial breeders generate 21 times more.
 
What many do not know, is that these pernicious emissions could be used to generate electricity.
 
“Up to now, Vietnam has not had a comprehensive mechanism for supporting the development of renewable energy, aside from the subsidies for wind power and waste-generated electricity, approved in 2011 and 2014 respectively,” Tran Van Khai, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Biogas Association (VBA), wrote in a biogas energy report from 2014. “Biogas energy is an attractive investment, if we have appropriate policies for it. “
 
Khai declared in an interview, “I am very frustrated about the delay in biomass energy development in Vietnam. Everything is so slow.”
 
Four years after his report was published, and Vietnam still has only five biomass plants, operating in Gia Lai, Phu Yen, An Giang and Tuyen Quang, with a total capacity of 205 MW. None of them utilizes animal excretion. Among these five, the An Khe, Gia Lai biomass power plant, which uses bagasse from An Khe sugar factory, is the most effective, according to GreenID, the coordinating agency for Vietnam Sustainable Energy Alliance. Tran Dinh Sinh, Deputy Director of GreenID, stated that the biomass power plant reserves 25MW of its generated electricity for internal uses and loads 85MW onto the national grid.
 
Vietnam only uses about 40 percent of its biomass to generate energy, mostly in the form of heat, not electricity, despite the fact that the government-approved Electricity Master Plan VII aimed to produce 500MW of biomass electricity by 2020. “The policies were not coupled with real initiatives, so the pace of development has so far been disappointing, ” Khai said.
 
But before this issue is further examined, there are some clarifications that need to be made. What is biomass energy, and why is it considered a renewable source of electricity?
 
According to the BIOMASS Develop & Go Green, a handbook created by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), Vietnam Energy Association (VEA) and the Vietnam Center for Energy Development (VESC), biomass is “organic matter derived from plants and created through photosynthesis […] that can be considered as energy because of the solar power stored in the chemical bonds of organic matter “.
 
The handbook went on to divide biomass into three categories: wood residues, including roots, bark, sawdust, and leftover construction wood; agricultural wastes such as straw, bagasse, post-harvest maize, cassava and rice husks; and finally, animal excretion. These products can be converted into energy using one of these four different methods – drying, compressing, heat treatment and anaerobic digestion – with the last two methods most commonly used in electricity production. According to Sinh, thermal treatment happens in plants that consist of “boilers, steam turbines and generators, much like coal-fired power plants.”
 
However, unlike coal, biomass-generated electricity is considered renewable because its ultimate source comes from the sun, and most biomass can be regrown in a relatively short amount of time. If appropriately operated, the whole system is also 100 percent carbon neutral.
 
The sad reality is that organic waste that could have been used to generate electricity is now being burned in the open air, or indiscriminately dumped into canals. Just the 9,000 tons of solid waste per day in HCMC can generate about 1 billion KWH of electricity over the span of a year. Emissions from the ten leading Vietnamese pig breeding corporations are enough to produce 100MWH per year, but instead, they are being discharged into the sky.
 
Not counting energy derivable from single-purpose energy plants, the total amount of energy stored in biomass waste in Vietnam is equivalent to 26.7 million tons of oil, enough to power 3 million households for ten years. “The potential for generating electricity from waste is huge; we should make use of them to increase a land area’s economic efficiency, reduce environmental pollution, and create employment in rural provinces,” Associate Professor Bui Xuan An, VBA’s spokesperson, said.
 
Contrary to popular belief, biomass technology, like many renewables, is not a new technology, having been developed and applied in Vietnam since the 1960s. However, most of it was used in small-scale family stoves to generate heat for cooking. Generating electricity has similarly been restricted in scale, as most projects are the products of ESCO-plant owner joint ventures, meant to supplement grid electricity for individual firms’ consumption only, not contribute to it.
 
“Many livestock enterprises also [invest in biogas production] to meet their own internal needs,” said Bui Xuan An. “But even when they produce more than their own demand, they cannot sell the surplus to anyone or connect it to the national grid because the State has very strict regulations about this.” Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), a state-owned enterprise, is the only company able to buy and distribute electricity. “EVN has not yet decided to purchase electricity from biogas; hence, millions of cubic meters of energy are simply released into the air,” An bemoaned.
 
Under GreenID and WWF’s Optimal Sustainable Energy Development scenario, by 2050 Vietnam will be able to supply 100% of its electricity need using renewable energy, of which 10% will be biomass. “This scenario, however, does not take into account other issues such as lack of funding and legislative support,” Sinh said. “We also did not account for the limitations of the national grid.” MOIT’s Renewable Energy Development Project to 2030, with a vision to 2050, meanwhile, employs a much more modest figure of 43 percent.
 
As of now, around 38 percent of Vietnam’s energy is being generated from renewables, mostly hydroelectricity; the rest of the country’s energy demands are met by coal-fired power plants. Experts concur that in order for Vietnam to meet its renewable energy objectives, major institutional changes need to be made to facilitate the transition. “I think the 2020 goals can be reached tight, the 2030 goals will heavily depend on an improvement of the frame conditions,” said Philip Thiemann, Senior Renewable Energy Advisor at the German Institute of Energy (GIZ) in Vietnam.
 
In comparison with traditional fossil fuels, biomass electricity does require larger, more expensive storage, conversion and distribution systems. For an investment on this scale, the price of electricity set by the government is too low; biomass co-generation is currently bought at 5,8 US cents / KWH, while straw and rice husk products bring in 7,4 cents / KWH. “We do not yet have subsidies to promote biomass energy or adequate regulation within the legal framework; there is simply no support mechanisms at all,” Khai said. This is a major factor that drives away foreign investors.
 
Doctor of Science Do Ngoc Quynh, a specialist at VBA, maintained that the reason behind this lull is the government’s lack of enthusiasm about biomass energy. To them, the high production costs renders the renewable source much less lucrative than coal, which is demonstrably cheaper when long-term environmental costs are not considered. “Policymakers do know about the harmful effects of coal-fired power stations, yet still decide to turn a blind eye to pursue their personal interests and those of lobbying groups, most notably the monopoly, EVN, ” Quynh said.
 
Professor An concurred, “Environmental scientists believe that this lack of support […] does not stem from concerns about economic efficiency, much less so the environment and human health. It is firmly rooted in the benefits of groups associated coal technology and the 80-100 million tons of coal imported per year. “
 
He used the case of solar energy development as an example. “The state decided to buy solar power (Decision 11 and Communique 16), but so far, MOIT has not decided on the tax rate for solar electricity, so investors do not feel secure enough to further develop their projects. Meanwhile, the decision and communique will expire in one year,” explained An. “While all domestic and international analyses show that renewable energy development is sustainable for the environment, the economy and a society at large, our country focuses on the development of coal power. Why?”
 
Currently, VBA and VSEA continue to seek for opportunities to cooperate with MOIT and influence government policy in these regards. External support and counseling has also been provided by other states, most notably the Netherlands, through the SNV project for small household biogas, and Germany, through the GIZ/MOIT advisory group. “We have been focusing on creating strong coordination and alignment with other donors, energy efficiency, and smart grids,” said Philip Thiemann from GIZ.
 
“Currently, unbankable Power Purchase Agreements lead to high financing costs, lack of know how, lack of transparency, as well as long and complicated administrative process for Renewable Energy permits,” Thiemann commented. “All these issues are of structural nature.”
 
In order for the renewable energy market in Vietnam to become more attractive, it is imperative therefore that the government implements support mechanisms, including recognizing renewable energy project owners as “special investors” who can enjoy beneficial prices for land use, tax and loans, as well as receive high Feed in Tariffs (FiT). They should also be granted priority in terms of connecting to the national grid. More importantly, however, EVN’s monopoly-derived power needs to be weakened; if more companies can purchase electricity, the market will become more competitive, thus attracting investors.
 
But institutionalized lobbying aside, An also emphasized the importance of multimedia channels introducing new technologies to the people, especially those in more rural areas where plant waste is generated.
 
At present, not many are aware of biomass energy, its advantages and disadvantages, as well as its role in reducing the damage of fossil fuels. Hue Thao, a resident of Tan An, Long An, shared, “In my community, some people have heard about about renewable energy but few are interested, maybe because it does not appear often on multimedia channels.” Thao himself, when asked about the concept of biomass energy, said that he had only been exposed to news about biofuels. “It is known that these products are made from cassava and other additives, which should be environmentally friendly, but because there is not much information on them we have not tried using them.”
 
In order for Vietnam to become the regional leader in renewables and turn WWF and GreenID’s vision into reality, there must be more concentrated effort from within the country to change people’s views. Professor Bui Xuan An concluded, “In order to change the situation, public awareness campaigns have to go hand in hand with legislative advocacy.”