Speaking at the International Workshop co-organized by the Vietnam Energy Association and the UK Embassy on renewable energy development in Vietnam, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Cao Quoc Hung said that along with the significant economic growth, the demand for energy in the country rose by over 13% in the 2006-2010 period and by 11% in the 2011-2016 period. The demand surged by 10% in 2018.
“The high demand for electricity has put power generation and investment under pressure,” Hung said.
According to the national energy development plan approved by the Government, the national power capacity will amount to 130,000 megawatts (MW) in 2030, while the current figure is 47,000MW.
As such, developing renewable energy is one of Vietnam’s priorities to reduce the dependence on traditional forms of power generation in order to diversify energy sources, protect the environment and foster the sustainable development of the country and region, Hung stressed.
With the high potential of renewable energy resources, by 2030, Vietnam will be able to generate some 8,000MW of hydropower, 20,000MW of wind power, 3,000MW of biomass power and 35,000MW of solar power.
Electricity generated from renewable energy sources is projected to leap to 101 billion kWh in 2020, 186 billion kWh in 2030 and 452 billion kWh in 2050 from 58 billion kWh in 2015, according to the 2015-2030 renewable energy development strategy.
Hung said to shore up the development of renewable energy, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has introduced and submitted to the Government a set of mechanisms to develop solar and wind power.
Additionally, the Government has offered a slew of incentives and preferential policies to investors to boost investments in the field. As such, by the end of 2018, the country put into service 285 small hydropower plants, eight wind power facilities and 10 biomass power plants, with a combined capacity of each category reaching 3,322MW, 243W and 212MW, respectively, he added.
However, the development of renewable power has been facing multiple challenges and obstacles over the past few years, including high investment fees, low output, poor infrastructure and the lack of sites for power projects.
“It is necessary to map out a program to remove these bottlenecks in the future,” Hung said.
Addressing the workshop, British Ambassador to Vietnam Gareth Ward said that the UK is one of the top wind power countries in the world, having over seven gigawatts of operational offshore wind capacity, the largest amount in the global market.
“I strongly believe that the workshop will offer the UK a chance to closely collaborate with Vietnam and support the country in its switch to the use of renewable energy in the future,” Gareth said.
Within the framework of the workshop, a delegation of 30 UK firms operating in renewable energy and green finance industries exchanged information and experience with Vietnamese enterprises over reducing the amount of carbon.
Vestas has assisted Vietnamese developer Tan Hoan Cau Joint Stock Corporation to secure funding for the 33MW Huong Linh 1 wind farm in the south-east Asian country.
The turbine manufacturer’s structured finance business coordinated the financiers, which included the Danish Export Credit Agency (EKF), an offshore bank and a Vietnamese bank, to provide money for the project.
“By having a thorough market and customer understanding, Vestas was able to lead a collaborative effort in developing an innovative solution that featured structuring a local bank guarantee to the offshore bank, who in turn received a further guarantee from EKF,” the company said.
Huong Linh 1 is located at Huong Hoa town in Quang Tri province. Vestas is supplying and supervising installation of 15 turbines from the 2MW platform.
The Danish company will also provide a 10-year service agreement (AOM 4000) including a Vestas online business SCADA solution.
The project achieved financial close in December, with turbine installation expected to commence around the end of first quarter of 2019.
Tan Hoan Cau Joint Stock Company deputy director Nguyen Trung Thanh said: “Achieving the financial close for this deal with EKF, the Danish Export Credit Agency, is a significant milestone in Vietnam’s wind industry.
“With Vestas’ proven track record in the Asia Pacific region and its ability to provide customised solutions, we are glad they connected us with the right partners to finance our project.”
Vestas Asia Pacific president Clive Turton said: “Securing this order underlines Vestas’ expertise in structured finance to offer our customers customised financing solutions based on their specific requirements.
“This project also demonstrates THC’s continuous confidence in us since our cooperation in Huong Linh 2 wind farm which started generating clean energy in September 2017.”
EKF chief executive Kirstine Damkjaer said: “Vietnam is a country with increasing energy needs and good conditions for wind energy.
“EKF has participated in wind farm financing worldwide, and our guarantees makes it possible to attract project funding from international banks.
“We see a great potential in Vietnam and are very proud to be part of the financing of the Huong Lihn 1 wind farm.
“EKF is ready to cover more wind farm financings in Vietnam in the years to come.”
MANILA, Philippines — An environmental group opposed to garbage incineration, is urging the Quezon City government to cancel a planned waste-to-energy facility that will be set up with a consortium of local and foreign firms, calling the project “a clear violation” of existing environmental laws.
In a statement, No Burn Pilipinas (NBP) denounced the Quezon City local government, outgoing Mayor Herbert Bautista, and a group composed of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), Covanta Energy and the Macquarie Group for pushing the project despite opposition from residents and civil society organizations.
“We ask the office of Mayor Bautista to respond to NBP’s position paper submitted in January 2019 before including the proposal in their council agenda,” the group said, adding that the City Council has been meaning to pass an ordinance since last month allowing the Office of the Mayor to proceed with the public-private partnership deal and declaring MPIC the sole and original proponent of the project.
Sponsored by Councilors Franz Pumaren, Donato Matias, Elizabeth Delarmente and Godofredo Liban, the proposed waste-to-energy project will be able to process and convert up to 3,000 metric tons of municipal solid waste per day into 42 megawatts of renewable energy over a concession period of 35 years.
NBP said the Quezon City government is pursuing over the objections of local residents, waste-pickers, and environmental groups who are concerned about potential health and environmental hazards.
“The proposed incinerator will use fire grates to ensure waste combustion which, will cause emissions of toxic and hazardous cancer-causing pollutants like dioxins and furans—a clear violation of the Clean Air Act and Ecological Solid Waste Management Act,” the group said.
The group added that construction of waste incinerators will also require 3,000 metric tons of waste per day, which means collecting, hauling, and supplying the incinerator more than the amount of waste Quezon City produces daily.
“This creates an endless demand for waste, therefore leaving us in gridlock in addressing the problems of solid waste management,” NBP said.
In seeking the scrapping of the project, NBP said Mayor Bautista should carefully study the cost-benefit analysis of the waste-to-energy facility, and to go beyond ‘surface-level convenience’ in planning for better solid waste management approaches.
The MPIC consortium earlier announced that it was hoping to get approval for the project in Quezon City within the first quarter of 2019. /kga
The government is looking to increase liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to counterbalance the high imports of oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which have been blamed for causing the continuing trade deficit.
The government recently gave the green light for United Kingdom-based oil giant BP to export 84 cargoes of LNG from its Tangguh LNG project in West Papua to Singapore, with the first shipment scheduled for next year.
The government was also in the process of selling another 40 cargoes of LNG from 2021 to 2025, said Djoko Siswanto, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry oil and gas director general.
“We still have [so] many cargoes that haven’t been sold yet. […] for 2021 to 2025, we have 40 unsold cargoes of LNG from BP and Bontang [Badak LNG Plant in East Kalimantan],” he said at an LNG workshop for investors in Jakarta recently.
LNG is different to LPG, more than 70 percent of which is still imported because of an insufficient supply of gas that has LPG characteristics.
Furthermore, the country also plans to sell 10 cargoes of LNG on the spot market from March to June. The LNG will come from Badak LNG Plant in Bontang, BP’s Tangguh Plant and the Donggi-Senoro LNG Plant in Central Sulawesi.
Of the country’s LNG production last year 28.37 percent was exported, while 25.25 percent was used for industry, 25.25 percent for electricity and 10.94 percent for fertilizer, respectively.
The average volume of LNG exports in 2018 reached 1,907 billion British thermal units per day (bbtud), or almost five times the average volume of domestic LNG utilization at 405.2 bbtud.
The major consumers of Indonesia’s LNG are Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China and the United States.
Indonesia is Japan’s fifth largest LNG supplier, according to Japan’s deputy ambassador to Indonesia Keiichi Ono.
Data from the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Task Force (SKKMigas) show that Indonesia was one of the top five LNG exporters in 2017 and held 1.53 percent of the world’s gas reserves.
However, Keiichi said at the same event that Indonesia would face a new challenge when it become a net importer of LNG in the near future.
“Both Indonesia and Japan will be LNG importers, with the US being our source of supply,” he said, adding that the US had an LNG export capacity of about 30 billion cubic meters.
In line with Keiichi’s statement, data from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry show that the demand for natural gas has gradually increased since 2003 at an average 8 percent per year.
SKKMigas chairman Dwi Soetjipto said the country was trying to increase the domestic use of gas, including of LNG, through the nationwide gas network program (Jargas), among other measures.
“Domestic gas utilization by December 2018 reached 59.9 percent of the total monetized gas,” he said. “Boosting demand for natural gas is a way to accelerate domestic gas use.”
Dwi said there were several factors that hampered the use of gas domestically, namely underdeveloped gas infrastructure, production decline in several blocks and delayed gas projects.
“[….] production decline has occurred in several blocks in West Java, East Java and South Sumatra, while several gas field development projects have been delayed,” he said.
Therefore, he said, the agency was in the process of integrating gas infrastructure and finding an innovative solution through the development of 18.322 kilometers of transmission and distribution lines this year.
The Jargas program, which can use certain types of gas like LNG, began in 2009. As of 2018, it had connected at least 300,000 houses across 31 regions.
The government plans to connect almost 5 million houses to the Jargas network by 2025.
The average use of LNG in the domestic market last year totaled only 405.2 bbtud, 21.2 percent of the amount exported.
France-based Blue Circle has finished a feasibility study for a project to build wind turbines in the Kingdom, with results indicating investment should ensue.
The results of the study were presented during a meeting on Monday between company representatives and Suy Sem, the Minister of Mines and Energy.
“The study began last year. Now that it is complete we can see that Cambodia has potential for investment in wind turbines,” said Victor Jona, director-general of the energy department.
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The study was conducted in Kampot, Preah Sihanoukville, and Mondulkiri provinces.
“If the company decides to invest, it will be the first wind farm in Cambodia,” Mr Jona said, adding that the turbines will be able to generate 63 megawatts once phase 1 of the project is complete.
He said the project will cost between $95 and $105 million, and the company will sell the power generated to Electricite du Cambodge (EDC) at a rate ranging from $0.076 to $0.081.
“Because wind is a renewable resource that does not harm to environment, we welcome this project and ask the company to negotiate a fare with EDC to move forward with the investment,” Mr Jona told Khmer Times yesterday.
“In principle, we agree to this project because we want green energy in the national grid. Currently, we generate power from hydropower dams and coal-fired plants.”
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Blue Circle said Cambodia could generate up to 500 MW from wind turbines.
The company currently has investments in wind farms in Thailand and Vietnam.
Last year, Cambodia consumed 2,650 MW, a 15 percent increase compared to a year earlier. 442 MW were imported from Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos in 2018. The rest was produced in Cambodia from coal-fired plants, hydropower dams, and solar farms.
The ministry estimates that the country will see a 16.1 percent increase in the supply of electricity in 2019, reaching 2,870 MW.
State-owned coal mining firm PT Bukit Asam plans to diversify its business by establishing a joint venture with state-owned diversified miner PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) to build steam and diesel power plants in East Halmahera, North Maluku.
Bukit Asam president director Arviyan Arifin told a press briefing in Jakarta on Monday that his company would hold a 75 percent stake in the venture and Antam the other 25 percent.
The joint venture would invest US$350 million for the development of a steam power plant with a generation capacity of 3×60 megawatts and a diesel-fueled plant with a capacity of 3×17 MW, both for the supply of electricity to Antam’s ferronickel factory in East Halmahera, he said.
The plants are estimated to consume 650,000 tons of coal per year, supplied by Bukit Asam.
“We are conducting feasibility studies at the moment. We expect the power plants to begin operations by 2023,” Arviyan said.
Bukit Asam, which started its business with the Air Laya mine in Tanjung Enim, South Sumatra, in 1919, has diversified its business into coal briquette manufacturing, coal railway transportation, electricity generation and methane production.
It is also entering the downstream industry this year by developing coal gasification projects.
“We have been mining and selling coal for the past 100 years. We expect to start a new era for the next 100 years by processing coal into value-added products,” Arviyan said.
He said his company had inked an agreement with state-owned energy holding company Pertamina and American corporation Air Products to build a plant in Peranap regency, Riau Islands, where the companies would convert coal into dimethyl ether (DME), a substitute of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), to cut down LPG imports.
Bukit Asam has also secured another coal gasification project with state-owned fertilizer producer Pupuk Indonesia, chemical manufacturer Chandra Asri Petrochemical and state-owned energy holding company Pertamina to build a plant in Tanjung Enim, where the companies will convert coal into urea, polypropylene and DME.
“We are still involved in discussions on the planned investments for the two projects,” Arviyan said. “The Peranap project will possibly need $2.7 billion and the Tanjung Enim project $3.1 billion.”
He added that his company was currently in talks with its project partners regarding the shareholdings.
Bukit Asam booked Rp 5.02 trillion ($351 million) in net profit last year, a 12.23 percent rise from Rp 4.47 trillion in 2017. The company attributed the growth to its increased coal exports and improved efficiency.
It exported coal worth Rp 2.44 trillion last year, contributing 41 percent to its total coal sales.
Total coal sales increased 5 percent year-on-year to 24.7 million tons in 2018 from 23.6 million tons in 2017, in spite of some obstacles in its domestic and export markets.
Arviyan conceded that amid unstable global prices of coal, the domestic coal price set by the government at $70 per ton, lower than international market prices, posed a challenge for the company.
However, Bukit Asam commerce director Adib Ubaidillah said the company would consider adjusting the volume of its domestic sales and exports depending on the development of global prices.
“We will principally allocate 50 percent of our sales for the domestic market and the other 50 percent for exports this year. However, we will spare 20 percent either for domestic sales or exports, depending on price developments,” he said.
The company is also facing obstacles following China’s ongoing coal import quota policy, he said, as China had been the company’s biggest market, along with India.
However, the company was upbeat it could export 14.1 million tons of coal this year by penetrating new markets, such as Hong Kong, Laos, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, Arviyan said.
The company produced 26.4 million tons of coal last year, up 7 percent from 24.5 million tons in 2017. It is targeting to increase its production to 27.26 million tons this year.
Arviyan said his company had allocated Rp 6.47 trillion for investment this year, of which Rp 5.34 trillion would go to business development, including logistics improvement, while the remainder was earmarked for routine investment. (ars)
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN – The leaders of Brunei and South Korea on Monday vowed to deepen cooperation, signing three memoranda of understanding (MoU) to enhance cooperation in investment, science and technology and intellectual property.
His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah hosted President Moon Jae-in for talks at Istana Nurul Iman, saying the latter’s state visit was an important milestone marking 35 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
A joint statement issued by the leaders outlined the scope of discussions, ranging from infrastructure development and connectivity, to cooperation in defence, education, agriculture, halal industry, tourism, energy, SMEs, FinTech, science and technology, ICT and smart cities.
“Over these years, our two countries have been developing cooperation in various fields, including trade and investment, infrastructure, cultural and people-to-people exchanges. I believe our meeting today will ensure that this relationship continues to grown in strength and flourish,” Brunei’s monarch said.
“The signing of MoUs todays will further strengthen our resolve to work closely and create more confidence for our agencies and private sector to work together.”
From L-R (front row): HM the Sultan; South Korean President Moon Jae-in; his wife Kim Jung-sook; and HM the Duli Raja Isteri (2L) during an audience at Istana Nurul Iman on March 11, 2019. Photo: Infofoto
‘Infrastructure diplomacy’
In the joint statement, Brunei said it welcomes Korea’s investment and business presence in the country, as well as continued cooperation in infrastructure development.
South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said the MoU on Investment Promotion Cooperation would expand business investment opportunities for both sides.
“We do know that Brunei has ongoing infrastructure development projects and Korean companies have a very strong track record here and would be very interested in participating,” she told The Scoop in an interview.
Korean firm Daelim Industrial is already involved in two of Brunei’s largest infrastructure projects — the Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Hajah Saleha Bridge and Temburong Bridge project. Once completed at the end of 2019, the latter will become Southeast Asia’s longest oversea bridge.
Expanding energy cooperation
Both countries said they would explore further collaboration in both the upstream and downstream oil and gas sectors, and re-establish cooperation in the LNG value chain.
South Korea imports more than one million tonnes or about 4.3 percent of its LNG supply from Brunei each year. Trade volume between the two countries has surpassed $1 billion per annum for the past 10 years.
Kang said: “In the energy sector, we are currently working with Brunei’s state petroleum authority not only to buy your natural gas but to jointly work together to develop new gas fields to produce, to then advance into third market together.”
The two countries also discussed joint capacity-building in renewable energy, and will co-chair the meeting on renewable and alternative power generation under the East Asia Summit.
Paving the way for greater intellectual property protection
The MoU on intellectual property will also pave the way for deeper cooperation in intellectual property rights, said Kang, recognising the Korean Intellectual Property Office as an international searching authority and preliminary examining authority for Brunei’s Intellectual Property Office.
“Under the MoU, Korea’s copyright authorities will work with Brunei’s copyright authorities to assist in the sultanate’s copyright application under the international treaty of copyrights,” the foreign minister explained.
“If you are registered in one country, you are copyrighted in the 150 other member states. But to be able to do that, you need to be certified and to be [certified] you need to conduct studies. Under this MoU, the Korean copyright authority will undertake the studies on behalf of the Brunei authority.”
A third MoU on scientific and technological cooperation was also signed, with both nations keen to work together on issues associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
“In today’s world of rapid technological advancement, it is important that we prepare our people with knowledge and skills that are geared towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” Brunei sultan’s said Monday night during a state banquet held in honour of the president’s visit.
“We appreciate the Republic of Korea’s sharing of expertise, as we move towards building Brunei as a Smart Nation.”
HM the Sultan delivers a titah during a state banquet in honour of the visit of South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Photo: Infofoto
Kang said there are several other MoUs in the pipeline, with above three agreements finalised for the president’s visit.
ASEAN-Korea relations
During the meeting at the palace, both leaders expressed their continued support for multilateralism and ASEAN centrality in the region’s political architecture.
Brunei is the current country coordinator for ASEAN-Korea dialogue relations from 2018 to 2021, and a commemorative summit between South Korea and the 10 ASEAN members states will be held later this year.
Kang said: “ASEAN as a regional body is a model of intra-regional cooperation. I think our approach to this is we fully appreciate ASEAN centrality and unity. We work with individual countries of the 10 but also with ASEAN as a whole.”
“This visit is my president’s first overseas visit this year. He decided to do it in Brunei because Brunei is our dialogue coordinator with ASEAN. We engage with ASEAN through Brunei. In preparing for that summit, Brunei’s role is very important.”
HM the Sultan (R), South Korean President Moon Jae-in (L), HM the Duli Raja Isteri (2L) and the presidents wife Kim Jung-sook (L) leave a banquet held at Istana Nurul Iman. Photo: Infofoto
His Majesty and President Moon also stressed the importance of joint efforts by the international community towards complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, in order to establish a lasting peace between the North and South.
Brunei and Korea also agreed to increase defence and security cooperation, seeking collaboration in defence technology after an MoU was signed back in September 2018.
The president left Brunei on Tuesday morning to continue his ASEAN tour to Malaysia.
