Improving electricity interconnection in Vietnam

Industry, the driver of Vietnam’s growth, is the main consumer of electricity. Vietnam’s development strategy is largely based on developing its industry in order to maintain sustained growth (6.6% on average per year over the last five years). This strategy means the capacity for electricity production must be increased and an electricity transmission network developed that allows energy to be transmitted from low-cost production centres to consumption centres concentrated in the industrial regions.

Accordingly, the Vietnamese government planned to construct a 14,000 km highvoltage line between 2011 and 2015, including the 500 kV high-voltage line connecting Pleiku and Cau Bong, which is particularly important for the electricity supply to the industrial area of Ho Chi Minh City.

The French Development Agency (AFD) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are co-financing the construction and equipment of this line, which is the country’s true ‘electrical backbone’.

The 437 km-long Pleiku-My Phuoc-Cau Bong power line will consist of two circuits and cross five provinces. The project also includes the expansion of Pleiku substation (central Vietnam), as well as the supply of equipment for Cau Bong substation (southern Vietnam).

The project was completed in 2015, just two years after it started.

The expected impacts from the project are:

• Increase in the available electricity capacity (from 2,500 MW to 5,300 MW) by facilitating connections between the national (central and southern) and crossborder (Laos and Cambodia) electricity networks;
• Reduction of loss in the electricity transmission network by reinforcing the highvoltage network (from 10% in 2010 to 8% in 2020).