Nearly 100 solar power plants to be commissioned this year
Nearly 100 solar power plants to be commissioned this year
Many solar power plant projects are due to be put into service this year, but their operations will encounter multiple difficulties due to the power source’s unstable generation, VietnamPlus news site reported, citing the National Electricity System Control Center (A0).
According to Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN), on June 30, nearly 100 investors in solar power projects will be entitled to sell electricity at 9.35 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour, in line with the prime minister’s Decision 11/2017 on incentives for such power projects.
The investors are currently intensifying their efforts to meet the requirements to obtain a commercial operation date (COD) for their projects. However, promptly testing and granting certificates of COD for 98 solar power projects within three months is expected to challenge the units operating and managing the electricity system.
Aiming to find the most optimal solution, EVN on March 22 held a conference on preparations for the operation of solar power plants to solicit feedback from investors in solar power projects on a draft regulating processes and procedures to test and commission CODs.
At the conference, EVN informed investors of the status of operational power grids in central and southern Vietnam to discuss and propose solutions to the bottlenecks in the electricity industry.
Speaking at the conference, a representative of A0 noted that solar power capacity fluctuates across the seasons of the year, adding that plants developed in the same region suffer a similar fluctuation in solar power production, resulting in high instability in the power system.
Besides this, since June, the generation of renewable power must guarantee that power lines and transformers will not be overloaded, as that may cause harmonic voltages to exceed the limit of 110 kilovolts on the power grid, especially in the Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan provinces.
Meanwhile, the number of solar power plants scheduled to be put into use from now until June is high, causing difficulties and putting pressure on those responsible for testing and appraising them.
Due to the bottlenecks, A0 asked investors to promote close cooperation before the solar power plant projects enter commercial service.
Apart from this, A0 proposed the investors provide technical documents for their projects as soon as possible to ensure the plan of operation runs smoothly, as scheduled.
EVN General Director Tran Dinh Nhan remarked that EVN would gather feedback and investors’ opinions and quickly issue a draft regulation on processes and procedures involved in testing, appraising and commissioning CODs of partly- and fully-completed solar power plants.
All the units under EVN will support investors and create favorable conditions for them to put their projects into commercial service by June 30, Nhan said.
