State-owned PetroVietnam plans to start up the first phase of its 1,200 MW coal-fired power Long Phu 1 project in December 2017, the company said Monday.
Under this phase, a 600 MW unit will be started up and in the second phase another 600 MW unit will be started up by May 2018, it said.
PetroVietnam awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the $1.59 billion project in the southern province of Soc Trang to a contractor consortium led by Russian Power Machines on Saturday.
The other contractors in the consortium include Slovakia's BTG Holding and PetroVietnam Technical Service Corp.
The Long Phu 1 project along with other coal-fired power plant projects in Vietnam's south, is expected to help mitigate power shortageproblem in the region by 2018, Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said Saturday.
The Long Phu 1 power project will require 3.2 million mt/year of thermal coal which will be imported from Australia or Indonesia. The coal will have calorific value of around 5,725 Kcal/kg and ash content of about 15%, PetroVietnam said.
PetroVietnam, one of the leading power producers in the country, plans to construct total five 1,200-MW coal-fired power projects -- the Long Phu 1, Song Hau 1, Vung Ang 1, Quang Trach 1 and Thai Binh 2.
It is expected to begin commercial operations at its first coal-fired power project, the 1,200 MW Vung Ang 1 in the central province of Ha Tin h, by the fourth quarter of 2014. The other projects are expected to be completed by 2018.
State-owned PVPower Coal, a unit of PetroVietnam's subsidiary PV Power Corp., signed a long-term coal offtake agreement in June this year to buy around 1 million mt/year of thermal coal from Indonesian PT Tuah Turangga Agung for its power projects, said PetroVietnam.
In April this year, PVPower Coal also signed a long-term coal offtake agreement to buy around 3 million mt of thermal coal from Australian Ensham's marketing arm Ensham Coal Sales. The coal would be supplied to PetroVietnam's Long Phu 1 and Song Hau 1 coal fired power projects in the southern part of the country.
