Vietnam's first green hydropower plant is about to start generating electricity.

On April 9th, Mr. Nguyen Huu Hat, Deputy Director of the Chiem Hoa Hydropower Project Management Board, announced that after nearly three years of construction, Vietnam's first green hydropower project will begin generating electricity from its first turbine at the end of April.

The Chiêm Hóa Hydropower Plant project has a total investment of over 1,700 billion VND, with the International Investment, Construction and Trading Joint Stock Company as the investor. Upon completion, the plant will have 3 generating units with a total capacity of 48MW.



Construction of the Chiêm Hóa Hydroelectric Power Plant is underway. (Source: Tuyên Quang Newspaper)

This is Vietnam's first low-head hydroelectric power plant, boasting many advantages over high-head hydroelectric power plants. Using straight-flow bulb turbine technology, the plant can generate electricity with a water level difference of just over 2.5 meters.

Besides the advantage of a relatively small surface area in the reservoir, minimizing displacement and land clearance, a characteristic of low-head technology is that the flow remains almost entirely natural, thus having minimal impact on the environment.

Mr. Tran The Son, Head of Construction Supervision and Management Department, Chiêm Hóa Hydropower Project Management Board, said that the project has currently completed over 90% of the construction work for items such as: the power plant, the 110KV power distribution station, the left bank gravity dam, and the 110KV transmission line connecting to the national power grid.

Components of Unit 1, such as the rotor, impeller, sluice gate system, and water guiding mechanism, are also being assembled. The plant is expected to begin generating electricity from the final unit by October 2012.

According to VNA