Vietnam's capital cuts power amid shortages

Mar 23, 2007, 5:59 GMT

Hanoi - Vietnam's capital Hanoi began a new series of scheduled electricity outages Friday amid a shortage of capacity caused by a key generator going offline, officials said.

'There have been small partial power cuts in different places in the city recently. The power cuts are to conserve energy due to a shortage,' said Duong Quoc Tuan, head of the Hanoi Power Company's public relations department.

Officials insisted the rolling blackouts would be temporary and that the country's outdated power grid would be able to meet surging demand during its peak during the summer.

'There is no power shortage at the moment,' said Dang Huy Cuong, director of the National Power Network Control Centre. 'Everything is under control.'

Cuong said this week's rolling blackouts were caused by a shortage in capacity when the 720-megawatt Phu My 3 thermo-electric plant in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province was taken offline for maintenance. Phu My 3 is expected back online Monday.

Vietnam's demand for electricity is growing 15 per cent each year amid the country's economic boom.

In 2006, the country increased electricity production by 13 per cent to 59 billion kilowatt-hours, but still struggles to keep up with demand.

Hanoi has inked deals to buy electricity from neighbouring Laos and China and is building several new plants nationwide, including a giant hydropower dam in northwestern Son La province.

However, the Son La plant won't come online until at least 2012 and it's unclear whether the country will be able to meet demand for electricity during this summer, when air-conditioning units increase household and office power use.

The capital has been forced to have rolling blackouts in past summers due to increased demand and drought, because Vietnam gets more than 30 per cent of its energy from hydropower.