Vietnam’s electricity output in the first two months of this year rose 6.1% to 39.59 billion kWh.

In Jan-Feb, the majority of power sourced from coal. Photo: EVN

In February, the volume increased by 14.9% to 18.6 billion kWh, according to the country’s sole power distributor Vietnam Electricity (EVN).

Of the Jan-Feb volume, 43.6% was from coal, the highest portion, followed by hydropower with 27.4%, renewables (16.8%), gas-fired power (11.1%), and 0.8% imported.

As many as 40% of the electricity generation in the two-month period came from EVN.  

As estimated by EVN, the power consumed in March will increase largely due to warm weather. Accordingly, the average electricity consumption volume will be 752.8 million kWh/day while the load capacity reached 39,729 megawatts (MW).

To prepare for the rising consumption in March, EVN will put into operation a number of 110kV and 220kV lines and mobilize rooftop solar power in the south, coal-fired power, and hydropower in the north. In addition, other sources of electricity will be from coal plants in the south and the maximum capacity of renewable facilities in the central region.

In March, EVN will launch the Earth Hour 8:30-9:30 pm on March 26, the annual event, to raise awareness of energy consumption, save electricity, and nature protection.

The Vietnamese electricity market is dominated by the state-owned EVN, which is supervised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT). In the generation market, EVN is a single buyer and the power transmission and distribution systems are exclusively operated by its subsidiaries.

The current laws identify eight types of parties taking part in the electricity market, namely electricity-generating units, those operating in electricity-transmitting, electricity-distributing, electricity-wholesaling, electricity-retailing, national electric system-regulating, electricity market transaction-administering, and customers.

EVN Ho Chi Minh City responses to Earth Hour to be launched on Mar 26. Photo: EVN