HANOI: Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved funding for a project to strengthen the power infrastructure in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.The project will be financed with loans worth around US$273 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asian Infrastructure Fund (AIF).
The project will develop and upgrade substations, expand 110 kilovolt and 220 kilovolt transmission lines, and increase transformer capacity to ensure a smoother and more reliable supply and reduce outages caused by overloading.
Ultimately, the project also aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.The six year upgrade and is expected to wrap up at the end of December 2020.
The state-owned Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) will guarantee the loans on behalf of the Hanoi Power Corporation (EVN Hanoi) and Ho Chi Minh City Power Corporation (EVN HCMC).
The government expects electricity demand to almost triple from 120 tera-watt (TWh) hours in 2012 to 330 TWh by 2030. The government has made expanding and improving the system’s capacity a key goal.
The funding required to achieve this goal is estimated to hit $48.8 billion by 2020
