World Bank Approves $449M Power Distribution Project for Vietnam

The World Bank has approved $449 million to fund a power distribution project in Vietnam, enabling the country to raise its electricity supply capacity amid poor services caused by monopoly. The Distribution Efficiency Project costing a total of $800 million aims to improve the performance of the state-run power corporations in providing power and electricity services, the bank said on its website. The three-component project will be launched at five power corporations including the North Power Company, Central Power Company, South Power Company, Hanoi Power Company and Ho Chi Minh City Power Company. It will focus on upgrading and expanding the 110-kV network, medium and low-voltage lines and electricity meters. This investment will allow the state-owned enterprises to reduce power loss and to efficiently meet the load growth and mitigate the load supply constraints caused by the distribution system congestion. The power loss rate in Vietnam is currently at 11.5%, much higher than that in regional countries like the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, at about 4%-5%. The Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN), the country’s sole power distributor, targets to reduce the figure to 8.9% in 2015. (www.worldbank.org Sept 11, Chinhphu.vn Sept 13)