Electricity trading resumes with Vietnam

With the startup of a double-circuit power line between China and Vietnam on April 30, power trade between the two countries has resumed.

The line runs between Honghe Hani and Yi autonomous prefecture in Yunnan province and Vietnam's Lao Cai province.

In August 2021, Vietnam proposed the need to resume electrical power trading. An estimated 4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity is to be exported to northern Vietnam through 2025, according to China Southern Power Grid, one of the country's two major power providers.

Since the agreement between the two parties in January, the Chinese side has been preparing for transmission, metering, dispatching, communication and marketing.

On April 15, the power line between Wenshan Zhuang and Miao autonomous prefecture in Yunnan and Vietnam's Ha Giang province began operating.

On April 30, the power supply of two 220 kV interconnected lines in the direction of Honghe was resumed as scheduled, with a power transmission scale of about 600,000 kilowatts to Vietnam.

For 16 years, since the startup of the 110 kV power line between Hekou Yao autonomous county and Lao Cai in 2004, interconnected power projects have been operating safely, according to China Southern Power Grid Yunnan International Co, a subsidiary of China Southern Power Grid.

A total of 40 billion kWh of power has been transmitted, more than 90 percent of which is clean energy.

The resumption of electricity trading between China and Vietnam will continue to deepen cooperation in the energy sector, optimize the allocation of resources in the Lancang-Mekong region and better promote energy interconnection between the two countries.