OREANDA-NEWS. Sumitomo Corporation has received an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for a supercritical power station to be constructed in the Duyen Hai district of Vietnam's Tra Vinh Province (Duyen Hai 3 coal-fired thermal power station expansion project designed to add 688MW in generation capacity; hereinafter, "the Power Station") by Power Generation Corporation 1, a power subsidiary of Vietnam's state-run utility Vietnam Electricity.

Vietnam's electric power demand is expected to rise more than 10% year-on-year as the country continues its economic growth. With Vietnam dependent on hydropower generation for about half of its power generation capacity, there is a growing demand for power sources unaffected by weather. The Vietnamese government has formulated a national electric power development master plan to expand power generation capacity from the 2013 level of 30,597MW to 75,000MW by 2020 (a 2.5-factor increase) and a further expansion to 146,800MW by 2030 (a 4.8-factor increase), and it is currently constructing a number of coal-fired thermal power stations and other power plants. Power demand is rising particularly fast in southern Vietnam, and the Power Station has been positioned as one of three urgent power development projects in southern Vietnam. The Power Station should be completed by 2018, when power demand in the south is expected to reach a peak.

Toshiba Corporation will supply the key equipment for the Power Station - the steam turbine and the generator - while the US firm Babcock & Wilcox will provide the boiler. The civil construction work will be carried out by Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. and the US engineering firm Black & Veatch will be responsible for technical coordination. The total order amount will come to about US\\$800 million.

Sumitomo Corporation has worked on other projects in Vietnam, constructing (on an EPC turnkey basis) the Pha Lai 2 coal-fired power station and supplying equipment to the A Vuong and Buon Kuop hydroelectric power plants, as well as operating the Phu My 2-2 gas-fired combined-cycle power plant jointly with the French power company EdF and Tokyo Electric Power Company in an ongoing IPP project. With a proven track record in both EPC and IPP projects, Sumitomo Corporation is now seeking to step up its presence in Vietnam's electric power market by accepting and completing the construction contract for the Duyen Hai 3 extension coal-fired power plant  project.

The total capacity of power plants worldwide that Sumitomo Corporation has helped construct already tops 50,000MW. Sumitomo Corporation will be further expanding its electric power infrastructure-related business on a global scale in Asian and other countries anticipating greater power demand, and will contribute through infrastructure improvements to the economic development of these countries.