Vietnam govt needs more than $133B for power projects by 2030

Vietnam will need to invest up to $133.3B in new power plants and transmission networks over the next decade to meet the country's rising demand, the government said.

Of the total, $96B is needed to build new power plants and $37.3B to expand its power grid, the government said in a statement on its website.

The Southeast Asian country's demand for electricity is forecast to annually rise 8.6% during the 2021-2025 period, and 7.2% in the 2026-2030 period, the government added.

The investment will boost the country's total installed power generation capacity to 138 gigawatts by 2030, the government said. Its current capacity is around 56 GW.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is drafting a new master power development plan that it will submit to the government for approval next month.

According to the initial draft of the plan, Vietnam will raise the proportion of wind and solar energy and of LNG-to-power, while seeking to reduce coal-fired electricity.

Facing an imminent electricity shortage, Vietnam is becoming more and more reliant on imported energy to support its economic growth, one of the fastest in Asia, as hydropower has been almost fully tapped while oil and gas production has peaked. Plans to build nuclear power plants were scrapped in 2016.

The government said Vietnam will have to annually import 1.2 MMt of LNG and 35.1 MMt of coal for its power plants by 2025. The volumes will be 8.5 MMt and 45 MMt, respectively, by 2030.

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