Measures urged to develop power industry

Vietnam should make more efforts to implement measures to improve the planning of the strategy for the development of the power industry as well as increase the share of clean and renewable energy sources and promote the effective use of energy.

Photo for Illustration (Pho to: Thai Thien).

The statement was made by Deputy Director of the General Department of Energy under the Ministry of Industry and Trade Le Tuan Phong at the 2016 Vietnam Energy Forum ‘Challenges for sustainable development’ in Hanoi on August 25.

At the forum, Deputy Director Phong said that the demand of electricity consumption in Vietnam increased 13.07% per year during the 2006-2010 period and around 11% per year between 2011 and 2015.

The national energy development strategy until 2020, with a vision towards 2030, set a target of supplying adequate energy for the socio-economic development of the country. Specifically, the total energy consumed in Vietnam reached about 55 million tonnes of oil equivalent (TOE) in 2015 and is expected to be at around 100-110 million TOE in primary energy consumption by 2020.

However, Vietnam is facing numerous challenges in the field of energy including pressures on ensuring energy security and investment capital caused by the high demand of using energy. In addition, Vietnam is moving from being an energy exporter to an importer with around 17 million tonnes of coal expected to be imported in 2020, accounting for 31% of coal demand for power development.

Vietnam has set a strategy for developing renewable energy through the mobilisation of all resources as well as increasing the renewable energy share according to the roadmap and reducing its dependence on fossil fuels, contributing to improved energy security, climate change mitigation, environmental development and sustainable socio-economic development.

According to the target, the majority of households in Vietnam will have access to electricity by 2020 and have access to modern and sustainable power services with reasonable price by 2030. In addition, greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by 5% in 2020 and 45% in 2050; meanwhile the proportion of households using solar powered equipment will increase from 4.3% in 2015 to 50% in 2050.

(Source: NDO)