The expected capacity for renewable energy in 2045 is 121 GW, but by January 2021, the total installed capacity, including the capacity already in operation and the proposed capacity to be added to planning, has reached 180 GW.
Current renewable energy projects requested for planning have reached 180 GW
On February 22, 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has just released an official announcement to collect opinions on the Electricity Planning VIII draft, including many remarkable numbers on renewable energy (RE).
Exceeding the expected 121 GW in the resource structure by 2045
Based on the results of building power sources, Power Planning VIII draft showed that while the total power sources only reached 93.7% of the total installed capacity compared to 2016 – 2020 planning, of which thermal power accounts for only 57.6%, the renewable energy sources soared to 205%.
By the end of 2020, Vietnam’s electricity system has a total installed capacity of about 69 GW, of which coal-fired thermal power is about 30%, hydroelectricity accounts for 30%, gas turbines and oil-fired thermal power is about 13%. The rest is renewable energy (26%) and imported. Among 26% of renewable energy, solar power accounts for 24%, wind power 1%, biomass power 1% .As for solar power, the amount of capacity has varied from 4.7 GW to 16,7 GW from the end of 2019 to the end of 2020.
But notably, the planning draft shows that if the projects under operation are also taken into account, and added to the adjusted Power Planning VII and even the projects that have been registered to be added to planning, the proportion of renewable energy, at the end of January 2021, reached 180 GW. This figure has far exceeded the expected number of 121 GW in the resource structure in 2045. For example, in terms of solar power alone, in 2030, the optimal calculation result in the Central Highlands is about 1,500 MW, but the total registered capacity for investment is 5,500 MW. In the South Central region, it is estimated to reach about 5,200 MW but registered up to 11,600 MW. Similarly, the Southern region is expected to reach around 9,200 MW but has registered 14,800 MW. For wind power, in 2030, the proposed optimal power source development program in the Central Highlands is 4,000 MW, but has registered 2.5 times. The Southern region proposed 6,800 MW but registered up to 17,000 MW.
Price compensation mechanism barriers
The report also points out the shortcomings in RE development such as a price compensation mechanism barrier. Because at the present, the price of electricity from renewable energy sources is higher than that from the traditional energy resources (thermal power, large hydroelectricity, …). While the compensation cost for renewable energy is being merged with the cost of the electricity industry, it has not been clearly separated in the electricity bill. Therefore, when the proportion of renewable energy increases, the price compensation component will increase gradually and greatly affect the cost of electricity industry.
Besides, there is a technical barrier. Due to the dependence on weather conditions, topography, climate …, the potential of RE resources is often concentrated in some provinces, localities (most of the provinces have small local load). The grid system has not met the requirements for capacity transmission.
In the integrated power system, a large number of unstable power sources such as wind and solar need building large backup power sources, causing waste of investment on the grid. But the research, construction and operation of energy storage devices; building smart grid systems, building real-time weather and meteorological forecasting systems; problems of controlling power flow, voltage, frequency, harmonics cancellation in the system with a large proportion of RE … has not met the practical requirements.
Furthermore, in recent years, the construction progress of a number of power grid projects to ensure the release of capacity of wind and solar power plants has been added to the planning in provinces with great potential of wind power and solar power such as Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan … is still slow. The addition of new projects to regional planning seems difficult and overloaded.
Regarding the renewable energy projects, as Thanh Nien informed, on February 18, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has just signed a document responding to a number of documents of the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the review of the wind power projects that have been appraised in order to be added to the planning. Accordingly, “not consider adding the proposed projects by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to the adjusted Power Planning VII” but “included in the planning VIII”. The reason is that the revised Master Plan VII has already got 11,800 MW of wind power which is a “very high level”, but by the end of 2020 only 538 MW are in operation, and more than 11,260 MW is being implemented.
Source: Thanhnien.vn
