The country will lack 1.07 billion kilowatt-hours in these months if EVN can't ensure sufficient gas supplies for its three plants -Ca Mau 1, Ca Mau 2 and Nhon Trach 1 -in the southern region, the state newspaper said.

State-run EVN said the plants have been generating only more than 50% of their desired output since the beginning of the year due to technical problems and the shortage.

Gas supplied to Ca Mau 1 and Ca Mau 2 was only 3.78 million cubic metres a day in January and 4.06 million cubic metres a day in February, while they need 6.5 million cubic metres a day to operate at full capacity, EVN said.

The report said gas supplies to these plants will continue to be low for the rest of the year.

The three plants account for some 14% of Vietnam's expected electricity output of more 40 billion kWh in the dry season that spreads from January to June.

In an effort to ease shortages, Vietnam decided to raise its retail electricity price by an average of 8.92% to 948.5 dong (5.5 US cents) per kWh from March 1.

It hopes the price hike will lead to more prudent consumption and encourage investors to develop more plants.

Still, the power shortage may not be too serious as consumption is declining in the face of the ongoing financial crisis, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a statement Tuesday.

Dow Jones - March 5, 2009