A workshop co-organized by Vietnam’s National Power Transmission Company (NTP) and the World Bank (WB) opened in Hanoi on June 19 has helped Vietnam seek better measures to modernize its out-dated system. The workshop focused on smart grid solutions and management process to serve the country’s rising consumption which hits about 14.1%/year in the 2011-2015 period. Vietnam needs more investment funded by the WB and other official development assistance (ODA) sources to modernize its transmission network once the country’s power capacity forecast to reach 43,000 MW by 2015 and higher in the following years. Accordingly, NTP will upgrade data serving operation and management of transmission network, upgrading operating system at 220 kV and 500 kV transformer stations, setting up wide area network (WAN) between transformer stations and power transmission companies and installing devices locating breakdown in the transmission network. In Vietnam, the poor transmission network caused by downgraded lines and dilapidated transformer stations is unable to follow the country’s rising generation capacity, causing power cut on the large scale and serious power loss. Between January and May, the country’s power loss was claimed at 5.3 billion kWh or the power rate at 11%, much higher than 4%-5% in regional countries namely the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. (Nangluongvietnam June 22)
