Vietnam Starts ADB, AFD-funded Power Transmission Project

National Power Transmission Corporation (NTP) under the state-run Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) has launched a transmission project costing $215 million funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the French Development Agency (AFD). The project on building transmission network, second phase includes two components including a 500-kV line with the length of 437 kilometer going through six cities and provinces in the Central Highlands and the south. The second component will cover two 220-kV lines connecting Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong delta province of Long An. Once completed, the project will boost transmission capacity to better smooth the power supply from hydropower plants in the central region and Central Highlands as well as the electricity imported from Laos and Cambodia to transmit to southern localities. Southern Vietnam is forecast to suffer power shortage in the 2013-2015 period due to limited transmission capacity amid the incompletion of the 500-kV North-South line. (Chinhphu July 16)