Mr. Ti Chee Liang
Reporter: Tra Vinh Provincial People's Committee has just given permission for Janakuasa/Ecotech to implement two wind power projects in the province. Can you tell me why you choose to invest in wind power - a relatively fresh area in Vietnam?
Mr. Ti Chee Liang: There are two main reasons. Firstly, green energy is a growing trend in the world. Green energy has made increasingly significant contributions to the protection of our living environment.
Secondly, as the economy grows and the demand for energy is increasing, the addition of clean and green energy has become more urgent. Janakuasa wishes to become one of the leading businesses to support Vietnam economic development, particularly in the field of green energy.
Reporter: What difficulties have you encountered when investing in wind power projects, sir?
Mr. Ti Chee Liang: Technically, wind farm projects are complicated, requiring adherence to strict regulations of the national power system. On the other hand, wind power projects are capital intensive with high investment rate, requirements of legal and administrative procedures thus are also highly stringent. However, during project implementation, we are grateful for supports granted by Tra Vinh province in appraising and shortening administrative procedure handling time, facilitating both parties to perform projects on schedule.
Vietnam Electricity (EVN), the buyer, with a lot of experiences and capabilities of large scale project management has actively assisted in speeding up legal procedures, created favorable conditions for successful negotiation of power purchase agreements.
Reporter: The Government of Vietnam has just issued a Decision to adjust the feed-in tariff of wind power from 7.8 US cents/kWh to 8.5 US cents/kWh for in-land projects and 9.8 US cents/kWh for off-shore projects. What do you think about this adjustment?
Mr. Ti Chee Liang: We assume that the previous feed-in tariff of 7.8 US cents of wind power was quite low, consequently difficult to attract investors. The Government of Vietnam has adjusted the feed-in tariff in time. I think the newly adjusted tariff is more reasonable and I possibly will invest further in other wind power projects in Vietnam.
Reporter: Many local people are concerned that wind power projects will adversely affect the environment such as impacts caused by land and sea acquisition, etc. How will your company solve this problem?
Mr. Ti Chee Liang: Wind power is one of the cleanest sources of energy because it doesn’t emit flue gases which cause environmental pollution. Wind flow is abundant and endless. Wind farms have a relatively small impact on the environment, when wind turbines crash into birds flying in the sky, or cause low frequency noises due to the operation of wind turbines. These setbacks have been thoroughly researched by European wind power developed countries and we have applied proven solutions and technologies in wind farms in Tra Vinh.
Some argue that construction of offshore wind power stations affects the fishing? Researches have shown that offshore wind farms increase fish populations as wind turbines act as artificial reefs.
As a developer of wind power projects, we pay a lot of attention to their environmental impacts. We have recruited professional consultants to develop environmental and social impact assessment reports in project development areas. Experiences gained from wind power projects in the world show that environmental impacts from wind power are very low compared to other power generation technologies.
Reporter: How has the company studied and proposed technical solutions related to connection to the national power grid in Vietnam, sir?
Mr. Ti Chee Liang: From technical aspects, integrating wind farms into the national grid will face a lot of difficulties and challenges for three main reasons: capacity, frequency variation; increase or decrease of electricity output due to changes in wind speed; high or low voltage causing sudden trip of protection equipment.
However, these challenges are not newly recognized but have been resolved at large wind farms in European countries. We are going to utilize experiences and knowledge in the world of Janakuasa (Singapore) and Ratchaburi (Thailand), who have right to access to well proven solutions in European countries and apply to Tra Vinh wind farms.
Connection to the national grid will be complicated if the country does not have a complete power development plan. Negative impacts when integrating renewable energy projects into the national power system of Vietnam have been carefully studied. When performing projects, we will carefully take into account technical parameters, ensuring safety when doing connection.
Reporter: Thank you very much!
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Hiep Thanh Wind Farm Project:
- Project Owner: Ecotech Vietnam Renewable Energy Joint Stock Company; Janakuasa Pte Ltd (Singapore)
- Location: Hiep Thanh commune, Duyen Hai town
- Capacity: 78MWp (with 18 - 19 wind turbines)
- Total investment cost: nearly VND 3,370 billion.
- Expected completion: by 2020.
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