Mr. Vu Xuan Khu
Reporter: Dear Sir, what is the difference between managing Vietnam's power system in this time from that in the period when the electricity market has not yet come into operation?
Mr. Vu Xuan Khu: From 1st July 2012, the official operation of the competitive power generation market marked a fundamental shift in the mode of operating the power system. In the past, the mobilization of generating units was performed based on the principle of minimizing the cost of purchasing power in the whole system, since the competitive electricity generation market was put into operation, the mobilization of the generating units has been implemented based entirely on the prices offered by power plants.
In the past, the capacity increase/decrease of units was entirely decided by the staffs at dispatch level based on the optimization in the whole system. Since the operation is performed under the electricity market mechanism, all the decisions on the capacity increase/decrease of the units are proactively made by the generation units based on offers. This point is highly transparent, avoiding inquiries of power generation units compared to the previous period.
Since power generation units have to regularly offer prices, receive dispatch orders based on market prices and calculate the revenue of power plants on a 1-hour cycle, EVNNLDC and the units have to fully equip the infrastructure facilities to operate the electricity market such as the digital information portal system, the website, the offer system, the dispatching system, the distance reading system, etc.
Particularly, from 1st January 2019, the competitive wholesale electricity market was officially operated, the power corporations directly participate in purchasing power wholesale on the market. With this advance, the perfection level of the electricity market has been increased as both sellers and buyers have been able to directly participate in the market and relatively proactive in their production and business activities following each unit’s strategy. At this stage, the dispatch operation has been more complicated, requiring more complicated calculations of mobilization schedules; the distance reading is far more massive than that at the competitive electricity market level.
It is expected that from 2021, the competitive electricity retail market will be put into pilot operation, then, the operation of the power system and electricity market will be much different and more difficult.
Reporter: Along with the electricity market, in the first 6 months of 2019, nearly 90 photovoltaic plants (PV) were put into operation. What are the difficulties and challenges facing the operation of the power system, Sir?
Mr. Vu Xuan Khu: By the end of June 30th, 2019, there were 89 solar power plants put into operation with a total capacity of 4,440MW, accounting for nearly 9% of the system’s total installed capacity. Thus, PV output has actively supported the power system, particularly at the end of the dry season (from May to July 2019). However, this also causes many difficulties and new challenges for EVNNLDC.
Specifically, most of PV plants are located in the Central and the South, regions, which causes the situation of overload to transmission lines and transformer stations. Therefore, the capacity of PV plants has to be reduced at some times of the day in order to ensure safety for the entire power system. Specifically, EVNNLDC has to calculate how to allocate the capacity redaction for 24 plants in the areas of Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan, An Giang and inform related units thereof, etc.
Due to the natural characteristics (highly dependent on the weather conditions), PV plants have a high concurrent coefficient, making large changes in capacity in a very short time; Meanwhile, the system’s standby capacity is low. This has been a significant challenge facing the Vietnam’s power system than ever before.
According to the statistics on solar power projects under operation, just in about 5 to 10 minutes, the plant’s generation capacity can vary from 60-80%. The fluctuations occur randomly based subject to the weather. It should be noted that solar power plants in a same area often have fluctuations in generation capacity at the same time.
According to EVNNLDC’s calculations, when the capacity of PV plants reaches over 4,000MW, the required standby capacity is from 150-200MW. This figure will continue to increase, corresponding to the increased capacity of PV plants. In the context that the power system has not enough local standby sources in the Central – Southern regions and full load at the sections of North – Central – South regions, it is much more difficult to meet the redundancy requirements for the Central and the South.
Reporter: What are the solutions of EVNNLDC to "solve" these new challenges, ensuring safe, reliable and economical operation of the power system and market, sir?
Mr. Vu Xuan Khu: Facing the above challenges, to meet the increasingly higher requirements for operating the power system, in line with the development of electricity market levels, the infrastructure serving the system’s dispatching and operation has been continuously upgraded by EVNNLDC and equipped with powerful and modern support tools from the world's leading reputable suppliers.
In addition, the current operation of the power system has been highly automated, minimizing the actions by operators, contributing to improving the reliability of power supply and ensuring the transparency of the electricity market.
EVNNLDC is investing in upgrading some support systems such as: Expanding the incident recording system, wide-area power monitoring system, constructing the power quality monitoring system to assess the impact level of new power sources; building a forecasting system of generating capacity from renewable energy sources to work out a reasonable mobilization plan, ensuring maximum exploitation of this energy source.
EVNNLDC has purchased forecasting capacity data of Renewable energy plants of well-known brands in the world in order to improve its ability for accurately forecasting the plant’s available capacity as a basis to make schedule for power plants, ensuring fairness and transparency. At the same time, the dispatchers at levels regularly and closely monitor the regularly full/overloaded elements on the grid for making timely adjustment, etc.
Improving the quality of human resources is the basic solution for EVNNLDC to face increasingly greater challenges. In the current specific conditions of Vietnam’s power system, the National Load Dispatch Center determines that promoting the internal resources and the advantage of high-quality human resources is the only solution to effectively solve new and difficult arising problems, etc.
Reporter: Could you tell about the main target of EVNNLDC in the coming period, particularly for the increasingly bigger difficulties in power sources?
Mr. Vu Xuan Khu: According to forecasts, in the coming period, Vietnam's power system will continue to grow at a high level, while the implementation progress of power sources expected to be put into operation is not met. Besides, the problem of supplying fuel such as coal and gas for power generation will continue to cause many difficulties due to insufficient supply sources; hydropower has been exploited at full capacity while the load demand continues to rise. Therefore, the operation of the power system and electricity market in the coming time will face many challenges.
To ensure safe operation of the power system and meet the set targets, with the leading role in operating power system and the electricity market, in the coming time, EVNNLDC is about to continuously work out solutions to balance the supply and demand in mid and long terms and report them to Ministry of Industry and Trade/Power Regulatory Authority and EVN.
At the same time, EVNNLDC improves the quality of real-time dispatching; flexibly respond to uncertain happenings of the power system; effectively operate the AGC system in order to ensure safe and uninterrupted power supply with increasingly improved indicators of frequency deviation (FDI) and voltage deviation (VDI).
On the electricity market, EVNNLDC is continuing improving the quality of load demand forecasting, rationally regulate hydropower reservoirs, calculate demand for ancillary services, analyze operations plans based on financial criteria in the electricity market, etc. Based on that, the Center proposes appropriate recommendations in the long-term operating strategy.
EVNNLDC also invests in upgrading the operation infrastructure of power system and electricity market, shortening the transaction cycle to 30 minutes; automating operational planning stages; coordinating with units to increase the quantity and quality of SCADA connection to the National Dispatch Center, ensuring the quality of input signals for effective operation of the SCADA/EMS system; building a database of the Center at the world's modern standards (CIM); improving the safety and security of its information system, etc.
Especially, EVNNLDC will improve its management towards professional and modern model; focus on improving the quality of recruiting new engineers; enhancing the quality of training on skills and professional qualifications for its employees in order to meet the requirements of operating the power system and electricity market in the coming years, etc.
Reporter: Thank you!