Vietnam Eyes Greener Power But Banks on Coal to Avert Blackouts
By Francesco Guarascio and Khanh Vu
June 11, 20249:02 AM EDTUpdated a month ago
HANOI/HOA BINH, Vietnam, June 11 (Reuters) – Lights are off and air conditioning is down at the headquarters of Vietnam’s state-run electricity provider EVN as the country’s top power utility tries to “lead by example” to avoid a repeat of last year’s crippling blackouts, an official tells visitors.
But many businesses around Vietnam’s capital Hanoi appear to be ignoring the call to conserve power, keeping decorative but otherwise purposeless neon lights on the outside of high-rise buildings on all night.
The difficulties in curtailing consumption illustrate the challenges facing Vietnam a year after sudden outages caused losses of hundreds of millions of dollars to multinational manufacturers with investments in the Southeast Asian country.
Vietnam is pursuing a patchwork agenda of energy-saving measures, grid upgrades, regulatory reforms and a massive increase of coal power as it seeks to avert electricity shortfalls, according to government data and interviews with officials and experts.
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