Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui

Alstom and its consortium partner, Hydrochina Huadong Engineering Corp., signed a contract worth about $23.6 million, with Vietnam Electricity, to provide electro-mechanical equipment and technical services for Song Bung 4 hydropower project in Vietnam.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung confirmed that Vietnam is determined to build nuclear power plants, otherwise the country will be in serious shortage of power.

Southeast Asia's largest hydroelectric power station has begun operating to help ease an electricity shortage in fast-growing Vietnam, an official said on December 19.

Raising the electric bill is the only way to help the Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN) to cover its losses amounting to some VND10.126 trillion ($483.9 million) in 2010, said a state official.

Many power plant projects are years behind schedule, hurting Vietnam’s chances of fulfilling its goal of achieving a stable power supply, industry insiders said.

Vietnam on Friday began construction of its largest private sector power project, amid calls for more investment in the sector in the energy-short nation.

HANOI - Two Japanese banks signed a $95 million credit contract on Friday with state oil and gas group Petrovietnam, the final funding package to help build a $1.6-billion coal-fired power plant in central Vietnam.

As of January 1 next year, Vietnam will officially apply a competitive power market mechanism under which various companies can compete to win to the right to generate and sell electricity, deputy prime minister Hoang Trung Hai has confirmed.

Vietnam is determined to prioritise the development of renewable energy such as wind, solar and gas-fueled power so that this source of energy will account for 6 percent of the nation's total power output by 2030.

Vietnam Electricity bought 3 billion kilowatt-hours of power from China in the first half, up 23.1 percent from a year earlier, according to a company statement today.

HANOI — The World Bank will lend energy-hungry Vietnam $330 million to build a hydroelectric plant, the bank said Tuesday after a signing ceremony marking its first foray into hydro power for the country.

Large foreign players hurt by Vietnam's power shortages have offered the country some words of wisdom to improve the country's power market.

Vietnam, battling Asia's highest inflation rate, may put off increases in electricity prices even as the country faces "chronic" power shortages.

HO CHI MINH CITY - Pervasive and ongoing power shortages represent perhaps the biggest hurdle to sustaining Vietnam's fast economic growth and attractiveness as a manufacturing base to foreign investors. The country will need to add an additional 4,600 megawatts of generating capacity per year from now to 2016 just to keep pace with demand, according to government estimates.

The northern province of Lao Cai has decided to cancel 39 hydroelectric projects because of the environmental harm they could do.