Removing bottlenecks to power network projects in Ca Mau

According to Truong Huu Thanh, deputy general director of National Power Transmission Corporation under state-owned Electricity of Vietnam (EVNNPT), the body has entrusted the Southern Vietnam Power Projects Management Board (SPMB) to oversee the implementation of the 220kV Nam Can power transformer station and 220kV Nam Can-Ca Mau 2 transmission line project in Ca Mau province.

The project is important to the province’s socioeconomic development and has been put among key projects for implementation in the province since December 2020.

As planned, the transformer station will be located in Lam Hai commune and the 57.8km transmission line will run through the districts of U Minh, Tran Van Thoi, Cai Nuoc, Phu Tan, and Nam Can, encompassing 160 foundation buttresses.

To date, the projects have seen many obstacles related to space handover in localities affected by the passage of the transmission lines.

EVNSPC is working with the Ca Mau Department of Industry and Trade to seek solutions to be able to jump-start the project shortly.

To ensure the project’s progress, EVNNPT has asked Ca Mau People’s Committee to urge the stakeholder districts of U Minh, Tran Van Thoi, Cai Nuoc, and Nam Can to further convince relevant households about the project’s significance and encourage them to willingly receive compensation and hand over the needed space to ensure the project’s progress.

EVNNPT has also requested that relevant sectors and localities support procedures on changing land use function from production forest into land for energy development, as well as forest planting for replacement.

The district-level compensation council and provincial land fund development centre are required to soon complete an inventory, make a compensation plan, and submit it to competent agencies for approval. From there, EVNNPT and SPMB will work on compensating affected households. The ultimate target is to ensure the project’s progress.

The householders showing disobedience and denying compensation could receive severe sanctions.

Sanction measures would also apply to disobedient households at two other power projects belonging to Southern Power Corporation (EVNSPC), including the 110kV An Xuyen-Vinh Thanh transmission line and the 110kV double-circuit transmission line associated with the 220kV Nam Can transmission station.

EVNSPC is working with the Ca Mau Department of Industry and Trade to seek solutions to be able to jump-start the project shortly.

Present at the meeting, Hoang Trong Hieu, deputy chief of Office at the National Steering Committee for Electricity Development, noted that these power projects are of special importance to Ca Mau’s development.

Besides enhancing the credibility of power supply to spur socioeconomic development, these projects contribute to unleashing local wind power and solar power sources in order to replenish the provincial budget.

Hieu also asked Ca Mau province to push forward with the space handover from local householders.

Hieu simultaneously required the project's developers to work closely with relevant localities to increase support for local people, thus facilitating the project's pace as it gears towards completion.

The steering committee will be working closely with Ca Mau’s competent agencies to troubleshoot arising issues. The contractors must assure project progress with the lowest impact on the lives of local inhabitants at the project sites.

From the point of view of the province, Lam Van Bi, Deputy Chairman of Ca Mau People’s Committee, unveiled that as these are pivotal projects to the province’s development, the management has given consistent guidance to gradually resolve the bottlenecks.

Bi also asked relevant districts to join efforts with the project units to raise people’s awareness about the project, striving to complete the handover this November.

Structural changes to remove the bottlenecks for power generation and create competition in the energy sector are necessary, according to local experts, for example by allowing private investments in the transmission system.

Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Quang Ninh, and Thai Binh provinces have recently sent proposals to the Ministry of Industry and Trade to add a series of wind and solar power projects to the National Power Development Plan VIII (PDP8).