Catching up with gusty growth of wind energy in Vietnam

There is no slowing down in Vietnam’s sustainable development as it continues to rapidly build up capacity for wind farms (onshore, near-shore and offshore) in the country. It is expected to soon dwarf the power capacity of all other ASEAN nations thanks to the world’s biggest offshore wind farm to be built off its windy coast.

With all these very promising business perspectives, Tractebel in Thailand took this opportunity to further dedicate its expertise in energy consulting, professional services and customer support to the Vietnamese market. Tractebel in Thailand is committed to bring value and experience, as well as its ability to service current and future markets in the region.

What is Tractebel’s footprint in Vietnam currently?

After various successes on the market in Vietnam in different technologies, we have had a good start in mid-year 2019 with the first wind onshore project 40MW as Owner’s Engineer, consequently in third and fourth quarter of the same year with three successfully awarded nearshore wind projects with respective capacities of 48MW in Tra Vinh, 141MW in Bac Lieu and 30MW in Soc Trang Province.

These assignments lengthen the list of winning projects for Tractebel in Vietnam. Tractebel in Thailand, in collaboration with its other international offices, especially for wind nearshore projects, was awarded with more than 250MW through four owner’s engineer mission in Renewable Energy.

Those successes definitely confirm the positioning and experience of Tractebel on the booming market in Vietnam, and a recognition of the key technical competences in wind.  

We have recently opened a Rep Office in Hanoi, highlighting our trust in the long term opportunities outlook in the country.

What are the next business opportunities you foresee in Vietnam?

The Vietnamese government has realized that wind power is a competitive and reliable source of electricity production. Given the soaring electricity demand, supporting wind energy development is of strategic importance.

In accordance with adjusted Power Development Planning VII, target of capacities for wind power installation are about 800 MW in 2020, about 2000 MW in 2025 and about 6000 MW in 2030 respectively. The total capacity of wind power projects approved in the electricity development plan is about 4,800 MW, expected to be operational in the period until 2021. The short-term challenge for Tractebel is to support the country to achieve its PDP goals by mobilizing additional resources and unlocking our expertise on the market.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has received proposals from the People's Committees of provinces for a total of nearly 250 wind power projects with a total capacity of about 45,000 MW. These projects constitute the backbone of the mid and long-term market in Vietnam.

What are the Tractebel strengths to develop the nearshore wind activity?

Tractebel has set up a wind team a few years ago in Thailand, thanks to an intensive transfer of competences from our international wind experts. Tractebel in Thailand has now built a fully trained and experienced team delivering onshore wind advisory across the whole project life cycle.  

With in-house wind onshore expertise as background, we are complementing our skills with wind nearshore & offshore capabilities to serve the evolving needs of the Vietnamese market.

Nowadays, we are building our value proposition by working with our international expertise from other entities for our ongoing wind nearshore projects. We are intending to further expand and develop our skills to fulfil offshore tasks, for instance, offshore geotechnical & foundation design, bathymetric, hydrodynamic including WTG offshore transportation & installation and so on.

This collaboration is essential for our near future outlook by building up our team locally and autonomously in order for Tractebel in Thailand to lead wind nearshore & offshore activities in Vietnam and other countries in the region.    

And our clients, how can we help them?

There are limited number of international consultants who are specializing in wind energy to serve the rapidly growing industry in Vietnam. What the clients appreciate is our geographical proximity, our competitiveness, our flexibility, combined with a solid set of skills thanks to Thai, European and Vietnamese resources.

Therefore, we can bring about good engineering, deliverables of high quality, in alignment with international standards for wind nearshore & offshore practices and competitiveness to the market.