USD 231.3 Million for Strengthening the Power Transmission Grid in the South

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of Vietnam has just signed the loan agreement worth USD 231.3 million to strengthen the power transmission grid in Southern Vietnam. This is the third loan of the Multi-tranche Financing Facility (MFF), of the 10-year term, for transmission system development and approved by ADB in 2011.

The USD 231.31 million loan is funded from ADB's ordinary capital resources. The term of the loan is 30 years with 7- year grace period; the interest spread is 0.6% per year; deduction rate is 1.0%/year, on-lending fee is 0.2% per year and the commitment charge is 0.15% per year calculated on undisbursed amount.

The investment program by ADB helps the Government of Vietnam resolve the bottlenecks in increasing the power supply by increasing the capacity of the transmission system to meet the growing power demand in line with strong economic growth.

This loan helps Vietnam to implement 60 km of 500 kV lines, 64 km of the 220 kV lines and 3,700 MVA transmitted in the South. Increasing the transmission capacity will allow the transmission of power from the South-western power plants to the national grid, increasing the reliability and stability of power supply for major economic centers in the South.

It is known that, including this investment program, the ADB has supported Vietnam in developing the power transmission system throughout the country with a total of about 1,200 km of 500 kV transmission lines and 670 km of 220 kV lines, along with the 220/500 kV substations with a total capacity of about 10,000 MVA. ADB also supported the National Power Transmission Corporation in building the  project management capacity.