EVN fully mobilizes power sources to ensure safe electric supply

Low demand growth due to pandemic

According to EVN’s August report, electricity demand slowed in August due to impacts of the Covid-19 epidemic. In the first eight months of 2020, total electricity production and import reached 164.05 billion kWh, an increase of 2.01 percent over the same period last year.

Electricity mobilized in the first eight months from oil burning and coal-fired thermal power rose – to 1.04 billion kWh, up 33.09 percent, and to 88.87 billion kWh, up 1.66 percent, respectively. Hydroelectricity output reached 39.03 billion kWh, down 12.75 percent (equivalent to 5.7 billion kWh), gas turbines achieved 24.96 billion kWh, down 16.29 percent, and power from imported sources reached 2.33 billion kWh, down 4.03 percent over the same period last year.

EVN mobilized 7.27 billion kWh from renewable energy sources during that period, with solar power reaching 6.39 billion kWh - 2.94 times higher than in the same period of 2019, contributed by nearly 50,000 rooftop solar power projects with total capacity of nearly 1,200 MWp.

During the 8-month period, the group's commercial electricity reached 142.38 billion kWh, up 2.39 percent year-on-year. Of the total, electricity supplied to industry only increased by 1.22 percent while supplies to commercial services continued to decline. However, the supply to domestic use still increased by 6.54 percent, largely due to the prolonged hot weather.

The transmission trend in August was mainly in the north-central and central-south directions. The highest transmission capacity on the north-central transmission system was 1,820 MW and the central-south was 3,465 MW. Electricity transmission output in August 2020 reached 17.16 billion kWh, and accumulated eight-month system output reached 136.69 billion kWh, up 1.4 percent over the same period of 2019.

Safe operation

According to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, due to abnormal weather changes and impacts of the Covid-19 epidemic, low load growth is expected to continue, with average power consumption of the whole system to reach 663 million kWh per day, and the largest load capacity estimated at about 34,360 MW.

EVN has asked power generation units to strengthen coordination with the Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group and Dong Bac Corporation to ensure sufficient coal to meet power generation needs.

The group also assigned the National Power Transmission Corporation and related units to secure the operation of the transmission grid, especially the 500kV north-south system, providing stable power supplies for production and business activities and people’s daily lives, especially for isolation and treatment facilities of Covid-19 patients.

In addition, to strengthen the capacity of the power system, EVN has directed its units to complete the installation of all panels and equipment for the test run of the Se San 4 solar power project, scheduled to go on line in October 2020, and focus on implementing a series of major power transmission projects. These include power connection and test power supply at the BOT Hai Duong, Nghi Son 1 and Van Phong 1 thermal power plants; utilization of power capacity from renewable energy sources; power utilization of hydropower plants in the northwest region, power purchase projects from Laos; projects to ensure power supplies for Hanoi City, the southern and key economic regions.