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Vietnam to have $2.5 billion coal-fired power plant

By Dam Tuan November 9, 2016 | 12:34 am PT

The project is being developed by a Japanese-South Korean consortium.

Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) and Japan's Marubeni Corp are set to start building and operating a $2.3 billion power plant in Vietnam soon, a few years after securing a contract for the project.

The coal-fired plant, Nghi Son 2, will be built in the central province of Thanh Hoa. The consortium won the contract in 2003 but only started paperwork in March last year.

On Tuesday, the companies finally signed an investment agreement with the Vietnamese government, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

KEPCO and Marubeni will operate the plant for 25 years then it will be transferred to Vietnam.

The plant is designed to have two 600-megawatt units. The companies will contribute 50 percent while the rest will be covered with funding from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the Export-Import Bank of Korea and other international lenders.

Vietnam is accelerating the construction of more thermal power plants to ensure energy security for its fast growing economy, despite environmenal concerns.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, it is managing 18 thermal power plants under the similar build-operate-transfer model with a total capacity of 24,000 megawatts.

vietnam-to-have-25-billion-coal-fired-power-plant-project

Nghi Son 1 Thermal Power Plant. Photo by Vietnam Electricity EVN

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