Malaysia’s independent power producer Teknik Janakuasa Sdn. Bhd has been licensed to develop a major coal-fired power plant in the southern Vietnamese province of Tra Vinh.

The Duyen Hai 2 thermal power plant will have two turbines with a total capacity of 1,200MW, the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA), under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said in a report on Monday.

The FIA said the BOT (build-operate-transfer) project has a registered capital of US$2.4 billion.

Duyen Hai 2 is thus the second-largest among the foreign-invested projects that have been approved in Vietnam in the year to date, following the $3 billion investment Samsung has pledged to pump into a screen making facility in the northern province of Bac Ninh, according to the agency.

Newswire The Saigon Times Online said on Monday the Tra Vinh Department of Planning and Investment had confirmed the granting of the investment license of the Duyen Hai 2 project to the Malaysian developer.

But the project is worth only $2.18 billion, a department official told the newswire on the phone.

Preparations for the Duyen Hai 2 plant construction have been ongoing since 2009 and Vietnam and Teknik Janakuasa reached a preliminary agreement on a BOT contract for the project in late 2014.

The Malaysian developer now has a year to arrange finances for the implementation of the project, according to The Saigon Times Online.

French power and transportation firm Alstom will join as the main equipment supplier.

The Duyen Hai 2 plant is among the key such facilities planned for development to ensure power supply for southern Vietnam, and is slated to become operational by 2020.

The facility is among four power plants to be developed at the Duyen Hai Electricity Center in Tra Vinh, which collectively have a capacity of 4,200MW once in operation.

The Duyen Hai 1, 3 and 4 plants are being developed by EVN, the country’s power giant.

The Duyen Hai Electricity Center will contribute some 30 billion kWh a year to the national grid once all of the four plants come on stream.

Vietnam plans to increase its electricity supply by 30,000MW from now to 2020, and will need a total investment of $8 billion to build new power plants, according to The Saigon Times Online.

BOT projects and those developed by independent power producers are expected to account for 47.5 percent of the to-be-built facilities.

An independent power producer, or non-utility generator, is an entity, which is not a public utility, but which owns facilities to generate electric power for sale to utilities and end users.

The Kuala Lumpur-based Teknik Janakuasa is an independent power producer specializing in the provision of operation and maintenance service for the power generation and water desalination sectors.

Another Malaysian firm is also likely to develop a multibillion-dollar thermal power plant in southern Vietnam.

Toyo Ink Group Bhd is reportedly concluding the final four agreements for the Song Hau 2 project, to be located in Hau Giang Province.

Hau Giang is around 115km west of Tra Vinh, and both provinces are located in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

The $3.5 billion Song Hau 2 project will be built under the BOT method with a term of 25 years, starting 2021, Toyo Ink managing director Song Kok Cheong told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on September 22.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!