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Problems in land clearance

General director of EVN Tran Dinh Nhan said to deploy a solar power project, it only takes about six months, while to implement a 220kV or 500kV transmission line project, it takes about 3-5 years. The development of solar power plants causes overloading on most of the 110-500 kV lines and substations in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan.

Meanwhile, power projects to release capacity for solar power plants face many difficulties, especially problems in land clearance.

Regarding this issue, according to Mr. To Van Dan, Head of Investment Management, The National Power Transmission Corporation of Electricity of Vietnam (EVNNPT), to release capacity of renewable energy sources in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan in the period 2020-2021, the corporation deployed 12 projects of 220 kV - 500 kV transmission lines/substations, of which six are under construction and six have not yet been planned.

According to Mr. To Van Dan, two projects under construction are facing difficulties in land clearance. Specifically, the 220 kV Phan Ri substation project has had a construction contractor from December, 2018, but has not been constructed yet due to difficulties in compensation and land clearance. Up to June 20, 2019, this plan only cleared 4,508m2 of 39,619.2m2.

According to the plan, the Nha Trang (Khanh Hoa province) – Thap Cham (Ninh Thuan) 220kV transmission line will be operational in December 2019. However, the project is facing difficulties in 55 foundations in natural forests that must report to the Prime Minister for the change of forest use purposes.

Similar to the EVNNPT, land clearance is also a challenge for Electricity of Vietnam Southern Power Corporation (EVNSPC) when implementing renewable energy projects, typically Luong Son - Hoa Thang - Mui Ne 110 kV project; or when replacing the conductor of Ninh Phuoc - Tuy Phong 110 kV.

Challenges in contractor selection

Lam Xuan Tuan - EVNSPC Deputy General Director said besides land clearance, the selection of contractors at this time is also a challenge. The reason is that a series of ongoing renewable energy projects have attracted almost all of the contractors' construction personnel.

Another difficulty of EVNSPC is it has not yet reached an agreement with the factory owners who have cut off electricity during the day, so construction is only carried out at night (from 4pm to 6am). The construction at night is both unsafe and not as effective as expected.

"Although the EVNSPC has asked the construction units to arrange the maximum force, it only deployed about 2 km each night," Mr. Tuan said.

According to EVN, by the end of June 2019, the total capacity of wind power and solar power in Ninh Thuan reached 2,027MW (accounting for nearly 50% of the total renewable energy capacity of the country). It is expected that by December 2020, this number will increase to 4,240MW.

While the local capacity is large, the load demand of Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan is small (Ninh Thuan province is 100-115 MW and Binh Thuan is 250-280MW).

Therefore, speeding up the progress of projects to release renewable energy capacity is urgent, creating favorable conditions for power plants to emit full capacity, and helping the EVN effectively mobilize these resources for its system.

EVNNPT and the EVNSPC have closely coordinated with ministries, departments, and localities to focus on human resources, work closely with contractors to speed up the projects to release renewable energy sources. However, in order to accelerate the progress of projects, according to the EVN, it is necessary to have the participation of ministries, departments and authorities in speeding up the progress of appraisal and alignment agreements, station location, and shortening the time for alignment agreement, location and land use plan.

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In particular, local authorities should consider and direct departments and agencies to be more aggressive in land compensation and clearance; flexible in supporting affected households to hand over the ground to the construction contractor, in parallel with implementing procedures on land compensation and clearance according to regulations.