Trung Son Hydropower Project: Facts

www.worldbank.org/vn/trungson

Project Development Objective

To supply least-cost electric power in a safe and environmentally and socially sustainable way.

Benefits

• Economic:

• Part of a national plan to satisfy increasing demands of energy in a country where electricity demand has been growing at 15% for the past several years.



• Facility to produce an additional 1,019 GWh/year out of 10,000 GWh/year additional estimated to be required (conservative scenario post 2008 crisis).

• Climate Change: CO₂ emissions of about 1 million tonnes per year avoided net, taking into account the additional but low emissions from reservoir)



• Energy Mix and Energy Security: Contributes to the development of Vietnam’s low-cost medium sized hydro, part of the least cost expansion plan, which includes about 4,800MW of hydro, which is preferred to thermal alternatives.



• International Standards in Dam Safety, Social & Environmental aspects adopted

General aspects

• Multipurpose, run of river, hydropower project (power generation, irrigation and flood control)



• First project to dam Ma River / contemplated within Vietnamese Energy and River Basins Master Plan



• World Bank’s first hydropower project in Vietnam



• 8 out of 10 World Bank safeguards triggered.



• Main features to include:
• a 84.50 meter-high dam on the Ma River.
• a 260 MW installed capacity for power generation with a 13.13 square-kilometer reservoir.
• a powerhouse containing four (4)65 MW Francis turbines each designed for a maximum water head of about 72 m
• a 20.4 kilometer access road connecting the road system to the project site.
• a 65 kilometer-long, 220-kV transmission line connecting to the Vietnamese national grid.
Social, environmental and community relations programs to mitigate project anticipated and unanticipated impacts to a population of about 10,600 persons.


• Electricity generation for domestic consumption (residential and industrial)

Financing

• First loan to Vietnam under IBRD lending conditions (27 yrs maturity & 6 yrs grace period).



• US$330 million to be financed by the World Bank out of total cost of US$ 411.57.



• Initial road access and bridges work done under retroactive financing conditions.

Social and Environmental impacts and mitigation measures

• 10,600 persons to be directly or indirectly impacted of which 7,012 are impacted by the main project area (dam and ancillary works construction).



• 98% of affected population belonging to ethnic groups: Thai. Hmong, Kho Mu and Muong.



• Community Livelihood restoration and Resettlement programs including the construction of infrastructure (roads, power supply, water for household and irrigation, schools and housing).



• Public Health Action Plan targeting resettlers to ensure any adverse impacts are detected and mitigated.



• Environmental Management activities to support biodiversity, protected areas and physical cultural resources.



• Multilingual Consultations conducted.



• Continued consultation at Livelihood, Resettlement and Environmental programs implementation.

Figure 1: Comparative chart between major infrastructure projects

Results evaluation - Project’s Key development indicators

1. The amount of electrical energy and peaking capacity provided by the TSHPP.



2. The economic and financial cost of electricity from TSHPP.



3. Livelihoods of those affected by project to be at least maintained at pre-project levels.



4. Evidence of satisfactory compliance with the Environment Management Plan (EMP).

Intermediate Results and evaluation indicators

1. Intermediate Results for the Dam and Ancillary Construction Component: (providing the basis on which least cost electric power is generated)
1. Progress in procurement of three main contracts: main works, electro mechanical equipment and owner’s engineer
2. Construction of dam and appurtenant structures
3. Construction of access road and bridges
4. Construction of power supply line



2. Intermediate Result for the Transmission Line Construction Component: (the means by which power generated is moved to consumers).
1. Construction of 220kV power evacuation transmission line



3. Intermediate Result for the Social and Environment Impact Mitigation Component: (ensuring socially responsible and environmentally sustainable construction and operation of the Trung Son Hydropower Plant)
1. Resettlement compensation: households fully compensate.
2. Livelihoods development: capacity enhanced in all villages
3. Effective awareness of all ethnic groups of health risks
4. Public Health Action Plan being implemented in project communes
5. Environment management plan completion and successful in reducing impacts as expecte
6. Corrective actions or new adaptive management programs implemented if existing mitigation measures do not reduce or eliminate impacts.



4. Intermediate Result for Capacity Development and Scale-up Component: (scaling up the impact of the environmental sustainability and socially responsible construction of the plant by leveraging the knowledge gained to other projects in Vietnam)
1. Pipeline projects incorporating international technical, social and environment standards

First Implementation Status Report (public document) expected: May-June 2011

Updated: March 23, 2011