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As the temperature rises, so does the demand for electricity in Vietnam, and the Vietnamese government has purchased a large amount of electricity services from the mainland, and has also made a request for the mainland to sell power technology to Vietnam.
Why is Vietnam's own power supply capacity so weak, and how is the mainland recovering?
Vietnam's "electricity"
In 2023, the lives of Vietnamese people have become very difficult under the continuous high temperature, because the Vietnamese government has to adopt the method of "power rationing" to ensure the production of factories in order to ensure the stable operation of key industrial facilities.
However, such measures have greatly affected the lives of the people.
Not only have the electricity used in the homes of the people on the street been restricted, but even the electric lights on the road have begun to be "turned off regularly", and there have even been incidents of thousands of chickens dying of "heat stroke" in the chicken farm.
In order to alleviate the plight caused by the lack of electricity, the Vietnamese government has also reactivated the solar panels used during the pandemic from its warehouses.
At the same time, Vietnam has also stopped caring about the so-called "carbon standard", and has begun to import a large amount of coal to alleviate the "electricity shortage" by increasing thermal power generation.
Vietnam's "electricity shortage" has drawn a question mark over Vietnam's recent achievements in stimulating foreign investment, which has affected Vietnam's economic development and investment stability to a large extent.
So, why is there such a "electricity shortage" in Vietnam?
First of all, there is the explosion in electricity consumption by industrial enterprises in Vietnam.
Vietnam had reached the pinnacle of being an "Asian power" for a period of time with the support of the Soviet Union, but after the war of self-defense against Vietnam, Vietnam's industrial facilities were no longer stable, and Vietnam's economic and industrial development has been sluggish ever since.
Although Vietnam began to imitate the mainland and began to resume construction in a planned way after the war, it never achieved too much success.
It was not until the 90s of the last century that it began to gradually increase its efforts to attract overseas investment.
In recent times, it has rapidly attracted a large number of foreign investment to invest and build factories in Vietnam through politically favorable ways, which has caused the electricity consumption of industrial enterprises to increase suddenly, and Vietnam's original power generation and power supply facilities have been "under great pressure".
Secondly, because the degree of industrialization was relatively low more than a decade ago, Vietnam did not attach great importance to power facilities in the process of industrial development.
Factors such as insufficient power generation capacity and weak power infrastructure construction have directly caused the overload situation of "hot weather, hotter power generation system".
Vietnam has been experiencing drought in most parts of the country since a few years ago, which has directly affected the amount of power generation mainly from hydropower, and at the same time, it has not been able to effectively cool down facilities such as thermal power generation.
Vietnam's "overheated" "electricity shortage" has directly affected Vietnam's industrial and economic construction.
As a result, Intel, a well-known international company, directly shelved its investment in Vietnam, and directly pointed out that because Vietnam's power infrastructure was not up to standard, Intel was worried that it would directly affect the sustainability of production.
In order to end this "electricity shortage" as soon as possible, Vietnam put forward a request for cooperation with the mainland in 2023 and reached a relevant contract to "buy electricity" from the mainland.
China's "Electricity"
The history of electricity consumption in the mainland is still much later than that of Western countries.
In the eighth year of Guangxu, that is, in 1882, the first electric light lit by British businessmen in Shanghai became the first time that Chinese used electricity, and Li Hongzhang also spent 60 million taels of silver to get a set of generators and light bulbs, but just to win the smile of Cixi's "Lafayette".
At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Shilongba Hydropower Station was not the only large-scale power facility left over from the years of war on the mainland.
It was only after 1950 that a large number of thermal power stations began to be built on the mainland with the help of the big brother of the Soviet Union.
Since the first five-year plan, the development of power facilities has always been an area that the mainland has focused on.
In the 90s of the last century, the mainland's thermal power generation construction began to enter a period of rapid development, successively from 200 million kilowatts, 300 million kilowatts to break through the total installed power generation capacity of 700 million kilowatts, with a super fast speed to prove China's ability to the world.
At present, as the mainland has begun to vigorously promote the construction of clean energy, the power generation industry has also begun to transform to clean energy.
According to the data of the power sector in 2019, the power generation capacity of non-fossil energy sources has reached 2.2 trillion kWh, accounting for 31% of the country's total power generation, and this figure is still growing.
Despite this, while the mainland is experiencing rapid economic and industrial development, it has also encountered the same "insufficient" situation as Vietnam.
After the mainland's accession to the WTO, the number of economic and manufacturing industries in the eastern coastal areas has surged, and in the face of difficulties in using electricity, Guangdong has put forward the idea of building its own power stations.
At that time, after the joint discussion of relevant experts on the mainland, it was decided to adopt a scheme of "west-to-east power transmission" to adjust the balance of electricity consumption in the mainland.
To put it simply, this plan is to transmit the surplus electricity from Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Guizhou and other regions with excellent hydropower generation performance on the mainland to Guangzhou and other power-consuming areas through the power network.
However, this solution has to face a problem, that is, the inevitable power loss in the process of power transmission, and at the same time, it is necessary to overcome the impact of harsh natural conditions such as high temperature and cold on voltage.
In response to this problem, scientists and engineers on the mainland began a long period of research, and achieved results that shocked the world.
At present, Continental's power transmission system can transmit 1,000 volts of ultra-high voltage for 5,000 kilometers and then only lose 15%. After the mainland has such a transmission medium, the "great linkage" between the east and west of electric energy no longer has a technical problem.
Since 2002, the mainland's UHV technology has not only provided power for various provinces and cities in the mainland, but also began to provide power supply services and related support services for high-voltage power supply technology for Pakistan, Cambodia and other countries around the mainland.
Continental's UHV conductive technology has also become a shining business card of Continental.
It was precisely because Vietnam saw this business card of the mainland that it made the decision to "buy electricity" from the mainland.
"Electric Cooperation" between China and Vietnam
In fact, this is not the first time that Vietnam and the mainland have cooperated in electric power.
As early as 2000, Vietnam participated in the "ASEAN Power Grid Interconnection Program" initiated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, that is, the power connection between ASEAN countries through the grid interconnection, and the implementation of a "West-to-East Power Transmission" plan within ASEAN countries.
Originally, ASEAN wanted to achieve a balance in power transmission between various countries through this operation, but in fact, each country is in a state of development, and power regulation is often "unbalanced".
In addition, not all ASEAN countries are neighboring countries, and the idea of "full grid coverage" cannot be realized in the true sense, and Vietnam is only "connected" to neighboring Laos and Cambodia.
In October 2005, China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the State Grid of the People's Republic of China, signed a "power sales agreement" with the State Power Corporation of Vietnam for the first time, and from October of the following year, it began to transmit 220 kV "electric products" from the Red River in the mainland to Vietnam, with an annual power supply of 1.3 billion kilowatt hours.
With Vietnam's increasing demand for electricity, coupled with Vietnam's relatively backward power generation technology and the influence of certain weather and other factors, ASEAN countries' "connection to the power grid" and the purchase of electricity from the mainland have been stretched, which will lead to the situation of "chickens are dying of heat".
To this end, the Vietnamese government has made a series of "recruitment and reinforcement" plans, the main target of which is the mainland.
The first is to "buy electricity" on a large scale. In May 2023, the Vietnamese government signed a series of cooperation agreements with the mainland, increasing the amount of electricity that will continue to be "purchased" from the mainland.
According to the government's Power Development Plan, more than US$134.7 billion will be spent to purchase electricity to sustain the "power purchase" cost until 2030.
Secondly, Vietnam has given great preferential policies to attract investment from mainland power plant enterprises, attracting mainland thermal power, hydropower, solar energy and other new energy power plant enterprises to "settle down" in Vietnam.
Taking mainland PV companies as an example, there are as many as 12 mainland PV companies in Vietnam's Bac Giang and Bac Ninh provinces, and Vietnam continues to extend an "olive branch" to mainland photovoltaic, solar energy and substation equipment enterprises.
In the words of the Vietnamese side, it means that "electricity provides power for Vietnam's development, and Chinese companies provide electricity to Vietnam".
Third, Vietnam is making a request to the mainland to introduce power generation technology and related technical personnel.
As for the introduction of electricity-related talents, this is completely Vietnam's right and the free choice of talents, and in this regard, not only the mainland has no need to block it, but other countries also have no ability to block it.
However, in terms of the introduction of technology, the mainland did not agree to Vietnam's request, for the simple reason that it was not something that could be simply "taught".
The power generation industry is not a simple "discipline", but a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional comprehensive discipline.
In terms of power generation, the mainland has the world's largest hydroelectric power station, the Three Gorges Dam, and also has the world's leading photovoltaic power generation industry, and in terms of transmission, there are world-leading high-voltage, ultra-high-voltage and ultra-high-voltage low-loss transmission technologies, especially the world's top technology in superconductor materials and many other conductive materials, which are things that Vietnam cannot learn.
In addition, in terms of national cohesion and comprehensive national strength, it cannot reach the height of the mainland, which is also one of the main reasons why Vietnam is unable to absorb and digest the mainland's power generation technology.
The mainland's super-strong power generation technology and transmission technology are not a single scientific and technological lead, but a manifestation of the comprehensive strength of a big country, so there is no way for Vietnam to follow the mainland to achieve such an effect before its comprehensive strength reaches a certain standard.
Therefore, Vietnam still needs to continue to develop the country's comprehensive strength in order to continue to maintain effective cooperation with the mainland, bring a stable life to the people, and bring sustainable development to the country.
Resources
[1] "Vietnam Decides to Continue to Buy Chinese Electricity in the Next 5 Years to Ensure Energy Security", China Economic Net
[2] "Chinese Enterprises Deeply Cultivate Vietnam's Electricity Market, Cooperation Progresses Smoothly", China News Network
[3] "Behind Vietnam's "Power Shortage", China report