Power plan update to incorporate solar

Power plan update to incorporate solar

To meet the electricity demand for economic development, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has proposed to increase solar power capacity in the country’s official power development plan.

Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien last week said at the consultation meeting to adjust the Power Development Plan VIII (PDP8) that by 2030, Vietnam must triple current electricity capacity, moving towards a scale 5-7 times larger by 2050.

“To achieve these goals, energy growth must be synchronised with economic scale, while meeting the international commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050. This requires a rapid adjustment of the PDP8, to accommodate strong growth demand and the trend of clean energy transition,” he said.

In the draft adjusted PDP8, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) proposed five scenarios for installed power capacity and calculated the total installed power capacity nationwide by 2030 to reach 211,800MW, an increase of 56,200MW compared to the PDP8 approved nearly two years ago.

Solar-based ventures can be made operational in much quicker time than other energy project types

To achieve the increased capacity, the MoIT proposed to expand the room for developing renewable energy sources, imported electricity, and flexible thermal power sources.

Accordingly, solar power capacity is proposed to increase dramatically to 34,000MW, an increase of more than 25,000MW compared to the previous plan. The additional capacity of solar power alone accounts for about 45 per cent of the total additional power capacity of the entire system by 2030.

This helps raise the solar power ratio from only 5.7 per cent of the power structure to 16 per cent when adjusting the planning.

Along with that, pumped storage hydropower and battery storage are also proposed to increase six-fold from 2,700MW to 15,250MW; hydropower to climb by about 5,000MW; and onshore and nearshore wind power by more than 7,000MW. Meanwhile, imported power from China and Laos could triple to 14,600MW.

The MoIT removed 6,000MW of offshore wind power from the planning due to concerns about planning issues and implementation progress.

Between 2031 and 2050, after nuclear power is put into operation, renewable energy sources will continue to be strongly developed. In 2050, rooftop solar power will increase sharply to more than 137,000MW, 3.5 times higher than the previous calculation. Concentrated solar power will increase by 77,000MW, and pumped storage hydropower and battery storage will increase to 11,200MW, nearly 2.5 times higher.

Nguyen Huy Hoach from the Vietnam Energy Association said that the PDP8 implementation is behind schedule.

“With an adjusted plan, the expected power source will increase by 56,200MW, which is a huge challenge. If there is no breakthrough solution, it is easy to lead to a suspended plan,” Hoach said.

According to Hoach, the MoIT is strongly increasing solar power to compensate for other power sources in the coming period because the construction time of solar power projects is quick, at only 3-6 months in many cases.

“The key issue is that the current solar power price mechanism has been stuck for a long time and has not been resolved yet. In particular, in recent times, investors have also realised that there are many risks when policies are constantly changing. A series of solar power projects that violated regulations and were slow to handle, causing hundreds of thousands of US dollars to be wasted, have made investors uneasy,” he said.

He explained that the sharp increase in solar power will also lead to a boom in the construction of these projects many times more than in the recent period, causing the transmission system to fail to meet the demand, causing system overload. Rooftop solar power currently does not have a policy to develop a battery storage system, leading to difficulties in regulation of power, Hoach added.

VIR