Specifically, according to Associate Professor Dr. Truong Duy Nghia, most of the hydropower resources in Vietnam have been exploited. In the context when renewable energy resources contribute a modest portion to the total electricity generation output, but with high generation costs, and nuclear power project has been halted, coal fired thermal generation maintains to be the principal development trend. Coal fired thermal generation development, after hydropower resources being fully exploited, is a predominant trend in many countries in the world.
Currently, coal reserves, the most abundant of fossil fuels, would last about 300 years. This type of power generation is also cheaper than hydropower or gas turbine or oil fired thermal generation.
According to the revised PDP VII, it is targeted that until 2020 coal fired thermal generation would account for approximately 42.7% of the total generation capacity mix of Vietnam, and about 49.3% of the total generation output mix. As of 2030, although there will not be a further increase in coal fired thermal generation capacity, the proportion of the total coal fired generation output would reach 53.2%.
With regards to environmental protection issues of coal fired thermal power plants, in the Seminar, Ms. Le Thi Ngoc Quynh – Deputy Director of Science, Technology and Environment Department of EVN informed that EVN had paid much attention to investments in waste treatment technologies; currently all the coal fired thermal power plants are equipped with electrostatic precipitators; industrial and domestic wastewater treatment systems; cooling water after being used for cooling condensers of steam turbines will flow in open circulation channels long enough to lower water temperature down to levels under the regulated norms of Vietnamese standards; flue-gas desulfurization systems have been installed in 8 out of 11 power plants; low-NOx combustion technology have been applied in 9 out of 11 power plants to mitigate NOx emission in smoke; etc.
In addition, EVN has been upgrading and rehabilitating their old coal-fired thermal power plants by installing environmental protection equipment to satisfy new requirements. Projects on upgrading and rehabilitating exhaust gas treatment systems of old coal fired power plants will finish by the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019.
During the past time, towards transparentizing environmental protection activities in thermal power plants, so far almost 100% of EVN’s new thermal power plants have finalized or accelerated their installations of constant monitoring and observation systems (camera online) at all the waste discharge locations of plants. The collected signals are transmitted to relevant provincial authorities so that local authorities and local people can take part in inspection and supervision activities.