Attending the ceremony, there were Mr. Daniel Kritenbrink, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States in Vietnam; Mr. Todd Abrajano, Deputy Director of USTDA.
On the EVN side, there were Chairman of Board of Directors Duong Quang Thanh and President and CEO Tran Dinh Nhan.
Delegates at the signing ceremony of the Grant Agreement
According to Mr. Daniel Kritenbrink, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States in Vietnam, one of the top priorities of the US Government is to support countries and partners, including Vietnam, to achieve the goal of ensuring global energy security.
The project "Technical support for a feasibility study on the proposed Southern Vietnam LNG Terminal and Gas-to-Power Project in Vietnam" has been approved by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam, which has permitted EVN to receive a non-refundable grant from USTDA with the value of more than USD 1.4 million.
Speaking at the ceremony, EVN’s Chairman Duong Quang Thanh said that the project is expected to provide Vietnam's power industry in general and EVN in particular with an overall assessment of liquefied natural gas market for electricity generation, evaluating potential sites for a gas-to-power complex using LNG, solving the "puzzle" of selecting site, LNG terminal technology and developing a feasibility study for the proposed plant in the Southern region of Vietnam.
This project will address difficulties and challenges of Vietnam's power system in the face of power shortages in the South in the coming period, as well as contribute to ensuring national energy security.
Mr. Daniel Kritenbrink, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States in Vietnam (seated on the left) and EVN's Chairman of Board of Directors Duong Quang Thanh signed the Grant Agreement for the project "Technical support for a feasibility study on the proposed Southern Vietnam LNG Terminal and Gas-to-Power Project in Vietnam"
According to the revised Master Plan of National Power Development No.7, in order to develop a power generation system of 130,000 MW by 2030, Vietnam needs to build more new power sources, ensure fuel supply for power generation and diversify primary fuel resources in order to ensure national energy security.
The demand for imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the period of 2021 -2025 is expected at 1- 4 billion m3 per year, and will be around 6 - 10 billion m3/year in the period of 2026 - 2035, mainly for electricity generation. The development trend of LNG power projects is an indispensable option of Vietnam’s power system and EVN, with the aim of satisfying the average electricity growth rate of more than 10% per year in the coming time, especially in the context of imbalance of supply and demand in the South.
EVN’s Chairman of Board of Directors Duong Quang Thanh said: US experiences in gas fired power development are highly valuable for EVN, and also a potential for future cooperation between the two countries.
Mr. Todd Abrajano, USTDA’s Deputy Director (seated on the left) and EVN’s President and CEO Tran Dinh Nhan signed the Grant Agreement
Mr. Todd Abrajano, Deputy Director of USTDA, said that during the operation time in Vietnam, the establishment of relationship and close cooperation with EVN is a great success of USTDA. At the same time, USTDA expects that the signing of cooperation agreements will bring great benefits to US businesses as well as Vietnamese partners.
Over the past 10 years, Vietnam Electricity has received several technical assistances from USTDA on information technology, study and development of wind power plants and most recently the technical assistance project on study and development of energy storage system in Vietnam. In addition, USTDA has organized many bilateral trade exchange missions to study technological capacities and cooperation opportunities in the field of smart grid development, power plant efficiency improvement, LNG technology, etc.