Son La Hydropower Plant, the largest hydropower plant in Việt Nam and Southeast Asia, will have to open its floodgates to discharge water to ensure safety if necessary (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Government has mappedout plans to ensure the safety of reservoirs at the Hoa Binh and Son Lahydroelectric plants, two of the country’s largest, said Tran Quang Hoai,permanent member of the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Preventionand Control.
If the worst-case scenario comes to pass, Hoaisaid, and the dam of the Hoa Binh Hydroelectricity Plant breaks, the water willbe directed to different areas to minimise danger and economic losses.
"According to the plan, we are not allowedto let the Hoa Binh Hydropower Plant’s dam break. It is necessary to activelydivide the water and keep the dams safe and ensure the security of the people,”said Hoai.
In developing the inter-lake operation plan, thesteering committee aimed not to let the dams break. In response to the floods,the committee built a reasonable flood diversion plan, he said.
Dao Trong Tu, Director of the Centre forSustainable Development of Water Resources and Adaptation to Climate Change,said that it was necessary to examine and assess the safety of all hydropowerdams in the whole region, and to work out appropriate safety measures.
Over the past three years, the Ministry ofIndustry and Trade (MOIT) removed 471 hydroelectric projects, including eightlarge hydropower projects and 463 small hydropower projects, due to problemswith the projects. They also rejected construction plans for 213 others. Of the small hydropower projects in the country,245 are operating, 162 are under construction and 230 others are under study.
Most of the projects removed by the MOIT arelocated in mountainous areas of the central and Central Highlands provinces andwere constructed and run by private enterprises.
A review showed that Gia Lai province inthe Central Highlands had 74 hydropower projects. After the study, the provincehas eliminated 17 small and medium hydropower projects with total capacity ofover 44MW. Many of the projects had very small capacity, from 0.25MW to 0.6MW.
With mountainous terrain and dense rivers andstreams, many northern mountainous provinces set up hydropower plants with theexpectation that they would bring economic benefits. However, a series ofproblems caused by small and medium hydropower projects has resulted indampened enthusiasm.
Professor Vu Trong Hong, Chairman of the VietnamIrrigation Association, said that water discharged from small hydroelectricplants is even greater than natural flood waters. Because the plants have smallreservoirs, there is little capacity for flood prevention, so when thereservoir fills with water, it must discharge a large quantity of waterdownstream.
The northern province of Cao Bang removed 11 projects from the plan in2011, while 40 others are still inthe planning stages with total capacity of over 350MW. Scientists said that the impact assessments forsmall and medium hydroelectric power plants in localities had not been carriedout well, leading to low management quality. Some projects were not suitablewith other plans for irrigation, transport and electricity, or had low economicefficiency.
The Hoa Binh Hydropower Plant is located inthe northern province of Hoa Binh on the Da River. Built by theSoviet Union beginning in 1979 and operational since 1994, this was the largesthydropower plant in Vietnam and Southeast Asia when it wasinaugurated. Its designed capacity is 1,920MW. Its annual electricity output is8.16 billion KWh.
The Son La Hydropower Plant is also on the DaRiver in Muong La district in the northern province of Son La. Constructionon the plant, with capacity of 2,400MW, started on December 2, 2005. The plantwas inaugurated in 2012 and became the largest hydropower plant in Vietnamand Southeast Asia.-VNS/VNA
VNA
