Page 11 - AsiaElec Week 49

AsiaElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AsiaElec
GRID
Vietnam to import more electricity from Laos
Vietnam will import an additional 200MW of electricity from Laos next year, taking the total to 1,200MW.
The government’s Standing Committee on promoting cooperation with Laos approved the increase at a meeting on Saturday.
With the country expected to suffer from power shortages from 2020, the electricity import from Laos is expected to increase beyond 5,000MW in the next 10 years.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has estimated there will be a shortage of 3.7bn kWh in 2021, which will peak at around 15bn kWh in 2023 before halving each year and falling to 3.5bn kWh in 2025.
Since the country could save at most 5-8 percent of electricity, the only short-term solution to offset the increasing shortage is importing more from Laos, ministry officials said.
For a long-term solution, they stressed the need to speed up work on major power projects.
The World Bank has estimated that with electricity demand growing by 8 percent a year Vietnam needs $150bn for its energy sector by 2030.
COAL
Japan to keep pushing coal
in developing world despite
“There is a need for coal-fired power generation, mainly from developing Asian countries where demand for energy is surging,” the source said. “We’re not planning to review our (infrastructure) export policy,” Japanese news agency Kyodo reported.
Tokyo’s infrastructure export strategy stipulates that Japan will “in principle provide aid to install cutting-edge power generation facilities upon requests from countries as long as they are compelled to choose coal as their source of energy.”
The government says it remains committed to coal due to it being a cost-effective power generation solution, and that new technology installed in place of aging, less efficient power stations can help countries reduce their overall emissions.
The government maintains that renewable energy sources remain too unreliable and expensive, despite their wide-scale uptake around the globe and significant, ongoing reductions in their cost.
During a UN climate conference currently being held in Madrid, Japan received a disparaging “Fossil of the Day” award from international environmental group Climate Action Network after the country’s industry minister spoke about a plan to continue using coal-fired power.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called on countries to halt construction of new coal-fired plants from 2020, leading to expectations that Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi could voice a shift in Japan’s position on coal in a speech scheduled for Wednesday.
South Korea shuts down 10
coal-fired power plants to
curb pollution
South Korea has shut down 10 coal-fired power plants as part of its anti-pollution campaign, the energy ministry said, Reuters reported.
The shutdown comes after the government
said last month it would idle up as much as 15 coal-fired power plants between December and February, while its remaining plants are expected to supply sufficient power.
In a statement, the energy ministry said 41 coal-fired power plants would operate at 80% capacity.
South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, operates about 60 coal-fired power plants, generating about 40% of its electricity.
Nuclear power makes up about 30% of South Korea’s electricity, followed by gas power at around 20%. Analysts expected the reduced coal power to give a slight boost to the country’s LNG demand.
RENEWABLES
Telstra looking for more
wind and solar as corporate
demand booms
Telecommunications giant Telstra says it is back in the market for more wind and solar projects as it seeks to boost the amount of electricity it sources from wind and solar.
Ben Burge, Telstra’s executive director of energy, says the company – whose electricity consumption is about 1.7 TWh, or nearly
1% of the country’s total demand – already sources about 35% of its needs from wind and solar, and wants to do more.
“We are in the market for few hundred GWh per annum, ” Burge told the Smart Energy Summit in Sydney on Tuesday. “If anyone has got a project out there, we are buying.”
rge said the reasons for more investment in wind and solar were two fold – the company wanted to do its’s part for the environment, but more importantly, it was a good financial deal.
“We like to do stuff for the planet –and that is awesome – but these have been really lucrative deals,” Burge says, noting the savings that have been made through contracting for projects such as the Murra Warra wind farm and others.
“Climate sceptics who ignore theses deals – it’s just sheer stupidity.”
Burge’s comments came as Macquarie Group also confirmed that it was looking to build about 20GW of large scale renewables in the next five years, including around 1GW in Australia itself.
criticism
Japan will continue providing backing to new coal-fired power projects in developing countries, a Japanese government source, despite international efforts to move away from fossil fuels that are responsible for climate change.
Week 49 11 •December•2019
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