Life for people in areas without access to the national power grid.

Pha Chieng is a border village in My Ly commune, Ky Son district. Although only about 15 km from the commune center, the steep and treacherous road makes it nearly a two-hour journey to reach Pha Chieng. It is home to 53 Mong ethnic minority households. For decades, this village has lacked access to the national power grid.

The living conditions of the people here are extremely difficult. All nighttime activities depend entirely on oil lamps or flashlights hanging overhead. Of the 53 households, only 3 can afford to buy solar-powered lamps.

However, due to the village's high altitude, year-round fog, and limited sunny days, the energy storage capacity of these lights is also limited. Therefore, solar-powered lights only illuminate for a few hours, forcing villagers to rush to complete their tasks at night before the lights go out.

While My Ly commune is over 50km away from Muong Xen town, in Ta Ca commune, located in the center of Ky Son district, there are still three villages without access to the national power grid: Sa Vang, Na Nhu, and Nhan Ly. Therefore, more than 200 households in these areas struggle to find alternative power sources. Most of the residents are poor or near-poor households with precarious economic conditions. One of the reasons for this is the lack of access to the national power grid.

Ms. Lu Met Phuon, from Na Nhu village, Ta Ca commune, said: "I'm over 60 years old now, but I've never had access to grid electricity. My children and grandchildren have to install turbines to utilize water from the stream to generate electricity for lighting. The electricity is very weak; it can only power a few light bulbs and charge a phone..."

One of the biggest concerns of the Khơ Mú people here is that although there are three hydroelectric power plants operating in the area, the people living near the power plants still do not have access to electricity.

According to statistics from Ky Son Power Company, to date, electricity has been supplied to 124 out of 193 villages in the district, with 69 villages still without grid electricity. These are mainly border villages, located in remote areas with difficult access roads.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Hong, Director of Ky Son Power Company, stated: "Completing the power grid is always the unit's top priority. However, in reality, bringing electricity to the villages faces many difficulties. Ky Son has steep and rugged terrain; transportation only reaches the commune center, and reaching the villages remains challenging, not to mention the frequent rain and floods. In particular, the most common difficulty is that in some villages, the power lines must pass through protected forests, but it is impossible to clear and cut down trees to erect power poles or lay power lines through these forests. This has significantly affected the progress of bringing the power grid to the villages. Despite this, the unit will strive to complete the power grid in these 69 villages according to the schedule for the 2020-2025 period."