VietNamNet Bridge – The Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) has told thermal power plants belonging to EVN to open their doors once a month to local authorities and the public to visit and monitor the operation of the plants.

The move is expected to show more transparency amid the recent violent protests from the public against thermal power. 

People have repeatedly expressed their concern about air pollution caused by thermal power plants, while experts have warned the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s decision to continue developing coal power plants for the next 15 years would destroy the environment.

They cited a research work by Harvard in 2015 as saying that if coal power was continued, Vietnam would have 25,000 people dying of pollution per year by 2030.

EVN said it had told thermopower plants to strictly follow the laws on environmental protection at coal power plants, with special attention to the progress of installing online monitoring devices and the process of implementing contracts on ash consumption.

According to the Duyen Hai Power Center, which manages four thermal power plants, (Duyen Hai 1, Duyen Hai 2, Duyen Hai 3 and expanded Duyen Hai 3), the ash to be generated by the plants that use domestic dust coal would account for 35 percent of the total amount of coal.

On November 1, the Duyen Hai thermal power Plant in Tra Vinh province invited local authorities and people in Dan Thanh commune nearby to the plant to witness the operation and the environmental treatment process applied there, including the treatment of fly ash, smoke and waste water.

The Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) has told thermal power plants belonging to EVN to open their doors once a month to local authorities and the public to visit and monitor the operation of the plants.

Nguyen Van Tam, deputy director of the Tra Vinh provincial Construction Department, said the province, with its many hydropower plants, has called on power investors to develop unburned brick manufacturing factories so as to use the ashes generated by power plants.

The Duyen Hai 1 Plant, for example, now uses 3 million tons of 6a dust coal and generates 1 million tons of ash every year. The plant is now trying to sell ash to the factories which make additives for local cement plants and unburned brick factories.

In August 2015, the government released a decision stipulating that investors can only start the construction of thermal power plants if they have clear solutions to the treatment of ash. 

Meanwhile, Nguyen Manh Hien from the Energy Institute said that thermal power remains the best solution for now. 

He said the Duyen Hai power plant in Mekong Delta with the 600 MW generation unit now uses very expensive supercritical technology, which minimizes the emission volume.