The central province of Quang Tri is working to attract investment to realize its target of becoming an energy centre of the central region by 2025.

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) 

Vice chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Quan Chinh said Quang Tri is giving priority to investment in wind, power, gas and thermal power.

The province looks to increase the total electricity generation capacity of local power plants of all kinds to 5,000 MW in 2025, including 3,200 MW of wind power, and around 1,500 MW of solar power.

As of February this year, Quang Tri is home to seven wind power plants already operational or going to be put into use, with total capacity of 218 MW. The province has given approval of investment for 28 other such plants with combined capacity of 1,441 MW.

At the same time, six solar power projects capable of generating 354 MW in total have been commissioned or are under construction.

Meanwhile, work started on the construction of a 1,320 MW thermal power plant at the end of 2019. Estimated to cost more than 55 trillion VND (2.36 billion USD at current exchange rate), this is the biggest investment project in Quang Tri to date. It is invested by Thailand's EGAT International Company Limited.

Besides, Russia’s Gazprom is proceeding with a gas-fuelled power plant with a capacity of 340 MW, while T&T group is considering a power plant fuelled by liquefied natural gas (LNG) with a capacity of 1,200-1,500 MW in the first phase, and 2,400-3,000 MW in the second phase.

However, the biggest question at present for Quang Tri is how to absorb the electricity generated by wind power plants in the province’s western region. The current 110 kV Dong Ha-Lao Bao transmission line can transmit only 500 MW. A new 220 kV line between Dong Ha and Lao Bao is being built since 2019, expected to transmit an additional 1,000 MW by 2021.

During 2021-2025, Quang Tri will have to build more 500 kV transformers for the transmission of nearly 2,000 MW more of electricity from wind power plants.

Meanwhile, solar, gas-fuelled and thermal power plants are mostly located in coastal and plain areas, facilitating the transmission of electricity.