Vietnam will spend nearly 37.56 trillion Vietnamese dong (VND) (over 2.36 billion US dollars) on developing power projects next year to meet its increasing demand for electricity.

The Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), the state-owned power monopoly, will pour the money mainly into completing the construction and upgrading of four power plants, building seven new plants, and accelerating the implementation of 32 major power generation and transmission projects, local newspaper Investment reported Friday.

Early this month, the EVN started to build Southeast Asia's largest hydroelectric plant with capacity of 2,400 MW in the northern province of Son La. The plant's first turbine is scheduled to go into operational in late 2010, the corporation said, noting that all of its six turbines will annually generate an average of 10 billion kwh.

Power demand has annually increased 13-15 percent in recent years in Vietnam, where 60 percent of the electricity output comes from hydroelectricity.

Vietnam's demand for electricity is estimated at 53 billion kwh next year, up around 17 percent against this year. Now, 96 percent of communes in Vietnam have access to the national power grid, the EVN said.

Source: Xinhua