Vietnam Sees Start of Major Private Coal Plant

The 1,240-MW coal-fired Mong Duong 2 power plant in Vietnam—the country’s first new private sector power plant to be commissioned in the past 10 years—began commercial operations on May 11, six months ahead of schedule (Figure 6). AES Corp. built the plant on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis. It has a 25-year power purchase agreement with state-owned Electricity of Vietnam and a 25-year coal supply agreement with Vinacomin, another state-owned entity. AES has a 51% equity interest in the $1.95 billion power plant, while PSC Energy Global Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of POSCO Power Corp., and Stable Investment Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of China Investment Corp., own 30% and 19%, respectively.

6. Private venture. AES Corp. put the 1,240-MW coal-fired Mong Duong 2 plant online in May. Courtesy: AES Corp.

According to the Vietnam Institute of Energy and the National Center for Socio-Economic Information and Forecast, Vietnam’s power demand and gross domestic product are expected to grow by 10.5% and 6.5%, respectively, over the next five years. The government has future plans to increase the country’s installed capacity by more than 60 GW over the same period. For more about Vietnam’s power ambitions, see “Vietnam Works Hard to Power Economic Growth” in POWER’s March 2012 issue.

—Sonal Patel, associate editor