Mr. Hoang Quoc Vuong, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Chairman of Appraisal Council chairing the meeting
"As an investor, EVN ensures the best, safest, most cost-effective criteria for projects", Mr. Pham Hong Phuong, Deputy General Director of EVN said at the meeting.
The objectives of investing Hoa Binh Hydropower Plant Extension Project are: Increasing 480MW of additional mobilization capacity for the system; increasing the average power output by 495 million kWh/year; contributing to improving the working mode of the electricity system by increasing the power source and peak coverage of the load curve, increasing operational flexibility, the reliability, and safety factors; contributing to reducing power production costs of the system; increasing reactive power of the system when required, contributing to ensuring voltage stability for the 500kV grid.
The work helps to use the most of the flow capacity by limiting annual excess discharge, contributing to reducing annual fuel costs, CO2 emissions and dependence on fossil fuels, reducing the working intensity of existing units, etc.
The estimated construction value of works is about VND 8,505 billion. The project is expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2020 and complete the entire project in 2024.
At the meeting, the experts agreed with the documents prepared by EVN and the design consulting unit (Power Engineering Consulting Joint Stock Company 1 - PECC1). However, experts suggest that EVN and PECC1 need to analyze more about environmental factors when blasting at construction sites, calculating to ensure the safety of the existing works.
Mr. Pham Hong Phuong, EVN Deputy General Director speaking at the meeting
Together with completing the technical design, EVN has also implemented the work items related to the bidding packages such as preparing the bidding documents, methods, and criteria for selecting contractors, which requires contractors to perform the work monitoring task during the project implementation process. EVN has prepared the bidding documents for the construction and installation package, which specifies technical standards for the contractors to ensure safety and environmental sanitation.
In addition, the Agency of France Development (AFD) has granted EVN a loan sum to procure materials and equipment, and also provides funding for EVN to hire consultants and supervisors for the construction work.
Mr. Pham Nguyen Hung - Chairman of the Board cum General Director of PECC1 said that this project is complex, large-scale, and will be constructed next to the existing Hoa Binh Hydropower Plant – a work being important to national security. PECC1 has conducted research and calculation since 2009, so the company can master a complete data system to ensure absolute safety for the construction.
The Chairman of the Board cum General Director of PECC1 explained a number of expert opinions at the meeting
Concluding at the meeting, Mr. Hoang Quoc Vuong, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Chairman of Board highly appreciated the reports on design, verification, consultancy, technical design, and construction cost estimation that were performed in compliance with the law, basically meets the requirements and doesn't have a lot of adjustments compared to the previous basic design.
Emphasizing on the decisive importance of safety and quality factors in the construction, Deputy Minister Hoang Quoc Vuong suggested that the Board's members and independent experts continue to carefully study the documents in order to, at the beginning of May 2020, for the next meeting to be held. The target is to complete the verification of technical design in May 2020 for the investor to implement the next steps, meeting the construction schedule in the fourth quarter of 2020.