The establishment of a new power company, Vincomin Power, would foster competition in the energy sector and benefit consumers, a senior official has said.

The goal of the government is to make the power sector more competitive, Ta Van Huong, head of the Energy Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said in an interview published on the government website.

The new, VND6.8 trillion (US$368 million) company, an arm of the state-owned coal monopoly Vinacomin, made its debut on January 10. It is the third power company in Vietnam, besides national utility Electricity of Vietnam and PetroVietnam Power, an affiliate of the National Oil and Gas Group.

EVN controls all transmission grids and retail supply while PetroVietnam has so far supplied a very small part the country’s total output.

Nguyen Chien Thang, general director of Vinacomin Power, said the company is developing 23 power plants with a total capacity of 13,169 megawatts.

The projects would be able to generate power from low quality coal that cannot be sold to other sectors, Thang said.

“Vinacomin plans to boost the consumption of all coal products which have been left unused earlier,” Huong said. “Its power projects therefore will not only benefit the power sector but the coal industry as well.”

He said Vinacomin Power would operate independently from its mother company and thus would have to pay for coal products like other companies.

Source: Thanh Nien

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