Commercial close reached for US$2.3bn coal-fired power project in Vietnam
The Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) has signed a contract with Marubeni Corporation and Korea Electric Power Company to develop the 1200MW Nghi Son 2 coal-fired power project in Thanh Hoa Province, in the north of Vietnam. The project is worth US$2.3 billion.
The parties have signed a Build-Operate-Transfer contract, marking the completion of the project development phase and the beginning of the financing phase.
Nghi Son 2 is the first and only international tender project in Vietnam over the past 15 years. Following a competitive international bidding process, which included proposals from EDF and Suez, the contract was awarded to the Marubeni-Kepco consortium in 2013.
The consortium began construction of the power plant in 2016. The first turbine is expected to come online in 2019, with the plant achieving full commercial operations between 2021 and 2022. Marubeni-Kepco will then operate the thermal power plant for 25 years before handling ownership to the Vietnamese state. At full operating capacity, the plant will generate 8 billion KWh a year for the national grid.
The project received funding from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) together with Export–Import Bank of Korea and other commercial lenders. It is one of the first power projects in Vietnam to have done so.
International law firm Watson Farley & Williams advised MOIT on all project documentation.
We have recently reported about several fossil-fuel power projects globally:
- 1,000 MW Cirebon 2 coal-fired plant in West Java - Indonesia
- 496.4 MW Merrimack thermal generating station - USA
- 414 MW Newington thermal generating station - USA
- 150 MW Schiller thermal generating station in Portsmouth - USA
- 1,400 MW gas-fired power plant in Pulau Indah - Malaysia
- 129.9 MW Gulf TS3 gas fired cogeneration power plant in Tasit district - Thailand
- Two 209 MW gas-fired facilities in Buenos Aires - Argentina
