China’s State Power Investment Corp (SPIC) says it has started commercial operations at unit 1 of the Vinh Tan super-critical thermal power plant in Vietnam.
Vihn Tan will comprise two 620 MW units and will help Vietnam to meet rapidly growing electricity demand in Binh Thuan province in the south of the country. Its development is a joint investment effort by China Southern Power Grid, China Power International Development Limited (a subsidiary company of State Power Investment Limited) and EVN, SPIC said.
Construction of the power plant started in July 2015 and commercial operations at unit 1 started on 6 June 2018, five months ahead of schedule.
The plant will reach full commercial operation in 2019, SPIC said.
Vinh Tan is part of China’s Belt and Road investment initiative. Earlier in July, SPIC announced that it is aiming to boost its overseas power generation capacity to 8 GW by 2020 and to 40 GW by 2030.
It will target developed countries and developing nations alongside the Belt and Road for investment and acquisition, the company said in a corporate report.
SPIC will focus on South Africa and Turkey for nuclear power projects, Belt and Road countries and African countries for coal-fired power projects, Asia-Pacific countries for hydropower projects and developed countries in Europe and America for new energy projects, according to the report.
By the end of 2017, SPIC had total installed power generation capacity of 3.01 GW and 12.9 GW under construction in overseas markets.
