In circumstances of serious shortage of power supply, raising capital to build small-capacity hydropower plants that are connected to the national power grid and do not cause adverse impacts on the environment is necessary, which helps minimize difficulties for the electricity sector. This is also a way to save power for the country.

With the above awareness, some State employees in Thai Nguyen province (most of them have retired), have established the Nui Coc Lake Hydropower Joint Stock Company. They have withdrawn some amounts of money from their saving accounts to invest in the construction of a small-sized hydropower plant near the southern dam of the Nui Coc Lake, Phuc Triu commune, Thai Nguyen city. This plant uses water from irrigation canals and the Tich Luong Reservoir in the city of Thai Nguyen to generate electricity.

The Nui Coc Hydropower Plant has three turbines, each having a capacity of 630KW

The plant has three turbines, each having a capacity of 630KW, a 2,500kVA - 0.4/22kV transformer manufactured by the Hanoi Transformer Manufacture Joint Stock Company. Total investment in this project is VND32.5 billion. After more than one year of construction, installation and equipment regulation, all turbines of the plant have been put into operation. In August 2009 the plant was officially connected to the national power grid to produce commercial electricity with the maximum capacity of 1.89MW.

Presently, the plant generates about 30,000kW of electricity each day, which means sufficient power supply for the Tan Cuong tea plantations. For the past nearly 10 months, the plant has generated 4.37 million kW of electricity (this amount equals one-day power consumption throughout Thai Nguyen province), contributing considerably to reducing electricity shortage in the province.

By Nguyen Trung

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