Representatives of GENCO 1 and Sumitomo Corporation hand over their signed agreement to each other. The plant is expected to generate 3.9 billion kWh. — Photo Ngoc Ha

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The Electricity of Viet Nam's (EVN) Power Generation Company 1 (GENCO 1) and Sumitomo Corporation of Japan have signed an agreement to expand the Duyen Hai 3 thermal power plant.

The agreement for the project, entailing a total investment of VND22,774 billion ($1.08 billion), was signed last November 25. The project, under the Engineering-Procurement of Goods-Construction (EPC) form, will be located at Dan Thanh Commune in southern Tra Vinh Province's Duyen Hai District and will cover an area of more than 878ha.

The EPC contract is worth of more than US$891.6 million, of which 85 per cent will come from domestic and foreign commercial loans and the remainder, from the investor's counterpart funds.

It will include the construction of a 660MW turbine that will help the plant generate 3.9 billion kWh. Plant construction began in 2012 and its expansion will begin this December.

It is expected to be operational by 2018 and will help solve the southern region's electricity shortage, particularly during the dry season.

At the signing ceremony, GENCO 1 Chairman Nguyen Loan said the plant was one of four thermal power plants with a total capacity of 4,200 MW in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh.

Tsutomu Akimoto, a Sumitomo representative, expressed confidence in his company's technical reliability and cited Pha Lai 2, the EVN's first thermal power plant, which was built a decade ago and continued to operate smoothly. — VNS