Overview of coal-fired thermal power development in Vietnam

The number, capacity and technology of Vietnam’s coal-fired thermal power plants have fluctuated, varying by each development period of the nation. However, at any period, coal-fired thermal power is an indispensable power source.

Before 1975

The first coal-fired thermal power plant in Vietnam is the Vuon Hoa Light House, constructed by the French in February 1894 in Hai Phong. Next, in the Northern and Central regions, small plants with scale not exceeding 10MW, slightly lower parameters were respectively constructed.

By October 1954, the total power capacity in the North was only about 31.5MW with an output of about 53 million kWh/year. In order to meet the demand for power, in parallel with repairing, renovating and upgrading of power plants left by France, in the years of 1955 - 1960, Vietnam commenced construction and put into operation several new coal-fired thermal power plants with small and medium capacity, steam parameters of medium pressure (pressure/temperature up to 3.43MPa (35bar)/435^oC), technology of chain grate boiler and pulverized coal-fired boiler

In 1961, with the help from the Soviet Union, Vietnam commenced construction of Uong Bi thermal power plant - the main power source for the North. Besides, Ninh Binh Thermal Power Plant with a capacity of 100MW constructed with support from China had been put into operation since 1974. These are the first coal-fired power plants with a capacity of up to hundreds of MW which have been constructed by Vietnam.

During the anti-American War, power plants were always the destroying target of US aircrafts. Although staffs and employees of the Power sector were not afraid of sacrificing, sticking to boilers and generators, maintaining production, as most power generation facilities in the North were fiercely bombarded, many plants were seriously damaged and some were completely destroyed, coal-fired thermal power output was constantly decreasing. In the South, by the end of 1974, there had been a number of coal-fired thermal power plants operated with a total capacity of more than 250MW, of which Thu Duc Thermal Power (165MW) was the largest one.

Uong Bi Thermal Power Plant

Period of 1976  - 1990

After the reunification of the country, Vietnam began to implement the Phase I of Power Development Master Diagram from 1981 to 1985. In order to overcome the serious imbalance in power supply and demand, the North focused on speeding up construction progress of Pha Lai 1 coal-fired thermal power plant, including 4 generating units (4x110MW), repaired and upgraded other plants. Thanks to the supplementing and consolidating the power generation, during the period 1980 - 1990, the output of coal-fired thermal power plants always accounted for about 40% of the total power output of the whole system.

Period 1991 - 2010

During this period, Vietnam strongly focused on exploiting hydropower resources. Over the past 20 years, Vietnam has built only 5 more medium and large-scale thermal power plants that have been put into commercial operation. Therefore, the output from coal-fired power sources in this period accounted for only 10-16% of the total national power output.

Period from 2011 to present

According to the adjustment of the National Electricity Development Master Plan for the period of 2011 - 2020, with the consideration to 2030 (adjusted Power Master Plan VII), by 2020, the total capacity of coal-fired thermal power plants will be around 26,000MW (accounting for 42.7% of the total system capacity), producing about 131 billion kWh (accounting for 49.3% of power output). Accordingly, since 2011, a series of large capacity coal-fired thermal power plants (600 - 1.200MW) across the country have been put into operation. Coal-fired thermal power is increasingly asserting its role as a key power source, ensuring national energy security.

Along with the development of both number of plant and its capacity scale, coal-fired thermal power technology is progressively modern, allowing the operation of generating units with high efficiency, safety and cost-saving. Many coal-fired thermopower plants have been invested with coal burning technology with of subcritical, supercritical steam parameters, etc. Vietnam has successfully applied the control and automation system for coal-fired thermal power plants.

Particularly, coal-fired thermal power plants have been invested with modern eco-friendly treatment technology, with high efficiency such as electrostatic precipitators (ESP), SOx, NOx reduction, etc., meeting the requirements of Vietnamese environmental standards. The issue of environment protection in the process of operating coal-fired thermal power plants in Vietnam is increasingly concerned and implemented very effectively.

Coal-fired thermal power plants put into operation since 1981:

• 09/08/2019 05:50
• evn.com.vn
• 14787