Looming Vietnamese power outages boost coal

摘要

As drought decimates Vietnam's hydroelectric output, work has been stepped up on the country's program of new coal-fired power plants. Low water levels are occurring with increasingly frequency, while limited amounts of new gas are likely to become available in the near to medium term. Electricity demand is growing at double-digit levels. Coal is seen as the answer, at least until a large tranche of nuclear capacity can be commissioned in the 2020s, a policy now in doubt following Japan's nuclear disaster at Fukushima.