VietNamNet Bridge - Dozens of hydropower plants now lack water for operation because of drought. Many plants have to stop working to discharge water for agricultural production.

A Vuong Hydropower Plant.

The Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) said at this moment, the national electric system has 81 hydroelectric plants in operation (only plants with designed capacity of over 30 MW) with a total capacity about 15,570 MW, accounting for over 40% of designed capacity throughout the system.

Of these, only 38 plants are able to regulate water for power generation, irrigation and water supply for the lowlands in the dry season, with a total capacity of 33 billion m3. More than 40 hydropower reservoirs cannot afford this.

Due to prolonged drought, which started inmid-2015, the reservoirs of hydroelectric plants severely lack  water. Several hydropower plants in the central region must stop working to discharge water to downstream.

Nguyen Van Lo, the spokesman of the A Vuong Hydropower Joint Stock Company in Quang Nam province said since August 2015, A Vuong hydropower plant has completely shut down, to discharge water to help fight drought.. A Vuong hydropower plant has a total capacity of 210 MW, consists of two turbins, with the annual average power output of 815 million kilowatts/h.

Lo said the A Vuong reservoir lacks 55% of the necessary water volume. With this amount of water, A Vuong hydropower plant can still produce electricity but at the request of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the plant was forced to stop operating.

In 2016, A Vuong was assigned by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to produce 530 million KW/h, but so far its output has reached just 3.9 million KW/h, less than 1% of the plan.

Nguyen Trong Oanh, General Director of Da Nhim - Ham Thuan - Da Mi Hydro-power Plant, said to serve the downstream areas of Binh Thuan province, the two hydropower plants of Da Nhim and Ham Thuan have to moderately operate and sometimes stop working.

"Drought has a strong influence on the business activities of the company. We had to stop the sale of electricity from these two plants. They have to give priority to discharging water to serve downstream farmers against drought rather than aiming at profit," Oanh said.

According to the National Center for Electricity Regulation, by mid-March, 15 out of 51 hydropower plants joining the competitive electricity market had to pause to discharge water to the downstream areas.

Thu Ly