Electricity of Vietnam is working hard to ensure a stable power supply for the north

On June 3-4, director general of National Power Transmission Corporation (EVNNPT) Pham Le Phu inspected the operation of the North-South 500kV transmission system in Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, and Ha Tinh provinces.

The transmission line is overloaded

At Ninh Binh power station, Vu Van Loc, the station's director, said that due to the prolonged hot weather, the Ninh Binh section of the transmission line often operates at either full capacity or in an overloaded state.

To ensure power supply in the North during the peak of 2023’s dry season, the National Load Dispatch Centre raised the transmission threshold's short-term capacity to 2,600 megavolt amperes (MVA) on the 500kV transmission line at the section of Nho Quan-Nghi Son 2 during peak hours to prioritise the water retention objective of the North’s multipurpose hydropower reservoir.

At Thanh Hoa power station, director Lu Thanh Hai said that the management unit operates more than 750km with five substations, which have a total capacity of 1,625MVA. During the prolonged hot weather and rapidly increasing temperatures, Nghi Son town recorded temperatures higher than 40 degrees Celsius, causing the overload situation.

The situation is also similar in Ha Tinh province.

Thus, the leaders of Power Transmission Company 1 (PTC1) and the power stations regularly monitor operations, especially at stations that are operating at full capacity and overload, to find solutions to ensure stability.

Allocating maximum resources for the North-South 500kV transmission line

At the meeting, representatives of the power stations mentioned difficulties such as the limited backup equipment due to dependence on imported products. In addition, the substation workforce is small, so there are many limitations when repairing and maintaining equipment during very brief power outages.

Phu acknowledged and greatly appreciated the power stations in Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, and Ha Tinh for proactively implementing solutions to ensure safe and stable network operations during the hot weather and operating the power grid at full capacity in this pressure situation.

Phu assessed that the North–South 500kV transmission line from Ha Tinh to Nho Quan plays an important role in ensuring electricity for the North. Therefore, it is necessary to continue to focus on the implementation of solutions to ensure the safe and sustainable operation of the power grid in the summer under the directives of Electricity of Vietnam and EVNNPT.

“We should take advantage of cold weather days and low transmission demand to dispatch units for the maintenance, repair, and replacement of equipment if there is a risk of damage,” he said.

He also assigned these units to strengthen operational management and monitoring, especially for the 500kV North-South backbone, and fully review all backup solutions to minimise the occurrence of incidents during periods of high transmission.

PTC1 is required to urgently organise human and material resources to support Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, and Ha Tinh to ensure the best possible operation of the 500kV transmission axis, making sure that it is ready in any situation to provide continuous, safe, and stable power during summer.

The unit must assign the task of ensuring electricity supply as the first, highest, and most important priority. Leaders of units have to prioritise dealing with all work related to the operation of power stations and the transmission line.