Powering Dong Nai to Soon Become Industrial Province

Dong Nai province has witnessed tremendous economic development in the past years to lead the nation’s industrial development. The contribution of Dong Nai Power Company to this cause is very significant. Not only supplying electricity for socioeconomic development, the company also plays an active role in raising the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI), thus helping Dong Nai to become a strong magnet to investment flows and quicken its industrialisation.

Solving investment quiz
Despite domestic and global economic fluctuations in recent years, Dong Nai province’s economy has maintained its steady growth. In the 2010 - 2015 period, the province’s gross regional domestic product (GRDP) grew an average of 12 per cent per year, higher than the national average and some other provinces in the southern key economic region. In addition, with its industrial development orientation, Dong Nai province has planned to build 35 industrial zones, with 32 having tenants and having high occupancy rates.

Not only industrial development but urbanisation in Dong Nai has also quickened in recent years. Bien Hoa City, the capital of Dong Nai province, was upgraded to become a first-grade urban area and many others also had their urbanisation ranks uplifted. The province also had many new urban areas in the period. According to the plan, the province is expected to have 11 big urban areas by 2020 and 17 by 2030.

These figures indicated a very strong growth of Dong Nai, which has a considerable contribution from the power sector. However, it has also posed tremendous pressures on the company. The company is managing 505.744 km of 110-kV transmission lines, 26 110-kV transformer stations with a combined capacity of 2,372 MVA, 370,000 km of medium voltage transmission lines and 12,700 transformer stations with a total capacity of 4,500 MVA. It is supplying electricity to 740,000 customers, representing a power access rate of 99.93 per cent. The commercial electricity output increases by an average of 10 per cent a year and each industrial zone has at least one 110kV transformer station. As industrial growth and urbanisation are presenting a heavy pressure on the power industry, particularly investment capital to meet rising demands.

Against this backdrop, to supply safe and continuous electricity for additional load demands, the company has striven to work out plans and prepare funds for power project construction in industrial zones, remote and isolated areas to serve production and livelihood demands. In recent years, Dong Nai Power Company annually invests over VND500 billion in repairing and upgrading power grids and building power projects. In 2015, the firm carried out 102 construction works with a total value of VND482 billion and 93 overhaul works valued VND69 billion. In 2016, it continued to execute 137 power grid works with a total value of VND747 billion and 100 repairing works valued VND89 billion. In 2017, Dong Nai Power Company planned to spend VND748 billion on power construction and over VND80 billion for major repairing.

Not only investing power grids for industrial zones and urban areas, Dong Nai Power Company also invests in power infrastructure in rural and remote areas. In 2016 alone, the company spent VND159 billion to install medium and low voltage transmission lines and distribution substations for rural areas and planned to allocate VND284 billion for this purpose in 2017.

Remarkably, the huge investment value has mostly come from the company’s funds or bank loans, while State funds account for a small share. Therefore, the company always tries to complete power projects in time to achieve the highest investment efficiency. The high effectiveness of investment, business and management has made the company a leading electricity distributor in the country in power loss reduction (less than 3 per cent).

Building a high-tech power system
To ensure the optimal operation of 110-kV transmission lines, 110-kV substations and medium-voltage grid, minimise incidents on the grid, reduce power loss, make sure that the voltage at load nodes does not drop pressure by more than 5 per cent, and avoid power outages for customers, Dong Nai Power Company has carried out technical solutions to boost the grid performance like connecting the grid at all voltage levels, ensuring the power supply to load centres, reducing power failures in the event of accident or repair, operating OLTC regulators at all 110kV substations to stabilise stationary busbar voltage, installing more capacitors supplying fixed reactive power to raise power factors. The company has monitored, analysed and assessed the grid performance, using specialised calculation instruments and software to ensure optimal grid operation.

Especially, the company is a leading power company in building the smart grid system to soon realise the goal of turning Dong Nai into an industrial province by 2020. Accordingly, by 2018, all 26 110kV transformer stations in the province will be unmanned. Controlling switches at 110kV power stations and transmission lines will be operated remotely through software and SCADA system and, by 2020, will be remotely controlled for devices on the 22kV medium voltage grid.

In addition, the company pays special attention to human resource development. Currently, the company employs more than 2,400 employees, including 500 engineers, many of whom are highly qualified engineers joining the ASEAN Engineer Team, 600 mid-level engineers and over 1,300 skilful electricians. It has also trained its employees to operate SCADA, including expert, experienced engineers and masters. In 2016, the company trained human resources and set up a power-repairing hotline staffed by 15 engineers and skilled workers. It planned to have two new hotline groups in 2017. These hotlines will significantly contribute to shortening the blackout time in repairing devices on the grid and transformer stations to ensure uninterrupted power supply to customers.

With its completed and ongoing investment projects and well-trained human resources, Dong Nai Power Company is realising the goal of developing the smart grid and giving a helping hand to Dong Nai to fulfil the goal of becoming an industrial province by 2020.

Quoc Hung