Vietnam’s northern province of Bac Giang, home to suppliers for Apple Inc and other global electronics companies, has promised daytime power to factories as blackouts sweep the nation.
Outages have hit industrial parks in some northern provinces including Bac Giang and Bac Ninh, state utility Vietnam Electricity Group’s northern unit has said.
Canon Inc’s factory in Bac Ninh Province faced an outage from 8am on Monday to 5am yesterday, the unit said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Further disruptions to electricity supply are probably unavoidable as demand overloads the power grid, the utility said.
Soaring power usage in northern Vietnam is expected to continue this month amid intense heat, it said.
Bac Ninh Communist Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Anh Tuan ordered officials to come up with a plan to minimize factory blackouts, particularly for electronics and food processing plants, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, Bac Giang would secure “uninterrupted” electricity for factories between 7:45am and 5pm starting yesterday, according to a posting on a provincial news Web site, citing a meeting of local officials after the blackouts disrupted production.
The province would prioritize power to households at night.
Bac Giang’s power distribution plan is to run for 20 days and it would be adjusted should the situation change, the report said.
Factories in the nation’s export-dependent economy so far have not complained about a lack of power, Vietnam Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises head Nguyen Mai said.
Many global companies, particularly electronics makers such as Samsung Electronics Co and those with large operations such as Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp (台塑河靜鋼鐵興業), have their own sources of electricity, he said by telephone.
Nonetheless, some plants have experienced power shortages, Vietnamese Deputy Minister for Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said during a weekend briefing, without elaborating.
Most cities and provinces have issued directives to save electricity, resulting in a reduction of about 2.5 percent of daily consumption, Hai said without giving the time frame.
Searing summer temperatures and reduced water levels in hydropower reservoirs are straining Vietnam’s power grid. Thousands of factories have been forced to curb consumption and officials have implemented planned blackouts.
Policymakers are now scrambling to find ways to boost the electricity supply, either by quickly clearing completed renewable projects or bringing in liquefied natural gas imports for the first time.
Bac Ninh People’s Committee Chairman Le Anh Duong urged companies to arrange shifts for the efficient use of power.
Companies with urgent orders should seek their industrial park’s approval to operate extra shifts from midnight until 5am, he said.
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