Vietnam leads region in power production

It represented a 9.8 percent increase in capacity, CEO of national utility Vietnam Electricity (EVN), Tran Dinh Nhan, said at a forum Friday.

He however expressed concern that 27 percent of it is from renewable sources and this high ratio is causing difficulties in managing distribution.

There were times last year when 60 percent of power generation were from renewable energy, but due to plunging demand because social distancing curbs to contain Covid-19, this led to an oversupply of power, he said.

But EVN has forecast that in June, when temperatures peak, the north could see power shortages while the central and the southern regions might have oversupply.

It expects power consumption to rise by 7.6 percent this year to 242.4 billion kilowatt-hours.