Japan – Vietnam Coal Energy Working Group in the working session - Photo: M.Hanh
From JCOAL, Mr. Umeda Hideyuki - Deputy Director of the Coal Committee under Department of Fuel Resources - Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan (METI) and Mr. Toshiyuki Oda - Director of JCOAL Technology Strategy Division attended the Conference.
From EVN, the Conference was attended by Vice President Nguyen Tai Anh, leaders of functional departments and representatives of EVN's thermal power plants.
Utilization of coal - fired thermal power plants in Vietnam is necessary to meet the power demand growth rate of about 10% per year and to ensure the national energy security. According to the revised Master Plan VII, by 2030, the total installed capacity of coal fired thermal power plants in Vietnam is envisaged to reach about 55,300 MW, accounting for 53.2% of the total generation output of the system and consuming about 129 million tons of coal. This objective poses many challenges for EVN in financing investment capital and finding coal supplies for these projects.
One of the issues of most concern is coal fired thermal power plant technology. Many coal fired plants in Vietnam have applied advanced technologies such as ultra - supercritical (USC) or carbon capture and storage technology. EVN currently manages 12 coal fired plants which use advanced technologies to meet high efficiency and environmentally friendly requirements.
Most of EVN's power plants have been equipped with electrostatic precipitators (ESP) with good performance and very high dust filtration capacity. For desulphurisation of coal smoke, most plants use limestone – based or sea water – based de – SOx (Sea – FGD) technologies, ensuring that SOx emissions meet the requirements of QCVN 22: 2009 - National Technical Standards on Industrial Flue Gas Emission.
For NOx treatment, EVN adopts Low - NOx technology to mitigate nitrogen emissions in the air. Some power plants such as Duyen Hai 1 and Vinh Tan 2 have been invested to install modern SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) systems for NOx treatment with NH3.
EVN has collaborated with independent testing agencies such as Vinacontrol, JCOAL to sample and analyze ashes and slags of thermal power plants. As a result, ashes and slags of coal fired thermal power plants are a common industrial waste, not a hazardous substance.
EVN's thermal power plants at Duyen Hai Power Complex (Tra Vinh) have been invested with high - efficiency, low - emission technologies. - Photo: Thanh Trung
The consumption of ashes and slags of EVN's thermal power plants is quite good. The ashes and slags are being used by partners in the production of building materials.
At the Conference, JCOAL’s representatives highly appreciated the technologies that EVN has been using at its coal fired thermal power plants. At the same time, JCOAL shared Japanese experiences on the application of air pollution mitigation technologies. JCOAL presented information of how to develop and proceed with Environmental Impact Assessment reports of coal fired thermal power projects in Japan.
The parties exchanged experiences on the social responsibility of coal fired power plants, as well as how they organize communication activities with local people and local authorities where the plant is located; experiences in purchasing and transporting coal, coal trading contracts and international coal transportation practices.