VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) has agreed to open up its coal-fired power plants once a month for local authorities and residents to learn about and monitor their operations.

The coal storage area of Duyen Hai 1 Thermal Power Plant in Tra Vinh Province. The plant is finding ways to sell discharged ash to produce additives for cement and unbaked brick makers – Photo: Van Nam

The move is supposed to ensure transparency at thermal power plants after many residents have voiced outcries over air pollution caused by coal ash from such facilities, and some experts have expressed concern about their lasting, harmful effects on the local environment.

EVN said the group has requested plant management units to comply strictly with the provisions of law on environmental protection at their facilities, especially the progress of installing observation stations as well as the settlement of ash discharged from factories.

Four thermal power stations in the Duyen Hai Power Center in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh, including Duyen Hai 1, Duyen Hai 2, Duyen Hai 3 and Duyen Hai 3 extension, are expected to discharge an amount of ash equivalent to around 35% of the total consumption of coal.

The ash treatment from these plants has been a big headache for local authorities and plant operators.

Duyen Hai Thermal Power Plant in Tra Vinh Province has invited local authorities and residents in Dan Thanh Commune to explore the plant’s operations and the handling of coal ash, exhaust gases and wastewater last Tuesday.

Nguyen Van Tam, deputy director of Tra Vinh Province’s Department of Construction, told the Daily that the province is home to many thermal power plants, so the local government is calling for investors to construct facilities to produce unbaked building materials using coal ash.

For instance, Duyen Hai 1 Thermal Power Plant consumes more than three million tons of coal and discharges around one million tons of ash a year. The plant is finding ways to sell discharged ash to produce additives for cement and unbaked brick makers.

The Government has stressed that coal-fired power projects will not be approved to get off the ground unless their investors show effective plans for ash treatment. The request is a tough measure to deal with air pollution that threatens human health after a large number of people living in residential areas near Vinh Tan 2 Thermal Power Plant in Binh Thuan Province staged protests over air pollution caused by ash from the facility.

SGT