On April 15, the People's Committee of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province stated that the Government Office had just sent an official document to convey the opinion of Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha on the electricity supply plan for Con Dao district. Accordingly, Deputy Prime Minister has agreed with the plan of building submarine cables from the mainland across the sea to supply electricity to Con Dao. The Ministry of Industry and Trade is responsible for study results and the proposed plan, promptly coordinating with relevant agencies to implement the assigned task.
Electricity supply for Con Dao has been discussed for many years.
On March 22, the Ministry of Industry and Trade made the second report to Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha on load forecast and proposing power supply options for Con Dao district. In the review of Con Dao's electricity demand, the Ministry of Industry and Trade forecasts that this island district will need more than 90MW and 114MW by 2035 and 2045, respectively.
To meet the electricity demand, five power supply options for Con Dao have been proposed by Vietnam Electricity (EVN) and the consulting unit, Power Project Management Board No.3 (under EVN), including on-site diesel (as the current supply method); renewable energy (wind, solar); offshore wind power; offshore wind power in combination with renewable power; and grid-connected electricity supply by submarine cable.
In particular, the option of grid-connected electricity supply via a 110kV submarine cable has been recommended as the most feasible one. According to EVN, this project is economically and financially feasible, and meets the goals of stable power supply, economic development, tourism development, ensuring national security and sovereignty. Therefore, the Ministry of Industry and Trade unanimously proposed the above-selected option. Preliminary calculation shows that the total investment cost of the grid connection project is more than VND 4,950 billion, scheduled to be completed in 2025.
In order to electrify Con Dao, EVN has proposed a plan to build a 110kV transmission line, the substation location and the submarine cable route from Vinh Chau (Soc Trang province) to Con Dao. The investment scale includes building a new 110kV transmission line with a length of about 102.5 km from Vinh Chau 220kV substation to Con Dao 110/22kV substation.
Con Dao district is currently electrified from 9 diesel generator sets with a total capacity of 11.82MW; in which the available capacity is 9.7MW. In addition, the district has a number of rooftop solar power installations.