Hydropower dams continue to lack water for next 10 days

Nguyen Van Huong, head of the weather forecast department at the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, said in the next 10 days, the northern region would be affected by an inter-tropical convergence zone connected with a low vortex region in the Gulf of Tonkin and there would be frequent showers and thunderstorms as a result.

Despite the rain, water flow in areas where most hydroelectricity reservoirs are placed is expected to stay low.

The total flow from the Da River to Hoa Binh hydropower dam is still 81% lower than the average of most years.

The flow on the Thao River in Yen Bai Province is 74% lower than the same period last year, while that on the Lo River in Tuyen Quang Province is 68% lower.

Hydroelectric reservoirs in the north such as Hoa Binh, Son La, Lai Chau, Tuyen Quang, Thac Ba will still lack water, Huong said.

It is expected that in the next two months, due to El Nino the general average temperature across the country will be higher than average by 0.5 to 1 degrees Celsius or more.

Hot weather continues to appear for more days than average in the north and central region and rainfall in the north is likely to be 5-20% lower than average.

According to an official report, by June 2, the average capacity of reservoirs in the north only reached 46.7% of the level needed to operate hydropower plants.

Due to the lack of water, 11 hydropower plants in northern Vietnam have shut down, summarily taking 5,000 megawatts out of the grid.

At some point, the region lacked as many as 50.9 million kWh per day and EVN has been cutting power in the north unannounced.

According to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, since April the rainfall in the north has been lower than average by about 30-70%.

Heat waves have continued to ravage the region, with the highest temperatures breaking records to reach 41.4 degrees Celsius in Hoa Binh Province on March 22, and 44.2 degrees in Thanh Hoa Province in early May.