The Czech - Vietnam Energy Forum: Connecting for Energy Transition

The forum aims to orient the development of the energy industry and the roadmap for energy transformation in Vietnam in the coming years, opening up many cooperation opportunities for the foreign investors and enterprises, including the Czech Republic enterprises.

The Czech - Vietnam Energy Forum took place on the afternoon of February 20, at the headquarters of Electricity of Vietnam (Hanoi)

Mr. Dang Hoang An - Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade (MOIT) of Vietnam said that the energy and electricity demand forecasts of Vietnam in the coming years will continuously rapidly increase to meet the needs of the economy and people. At the COP26, Vietnam made a commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. This commitment demonstrated the Vietnamese Government to implement the goals of transitioning from the traditional fossil energy sources to the green, clean ones for reducing the greenhouse gas and protecting the climate change.

The Vietnamese Government is directing to continue increasing the renewable energy sources such as: Hydropower, onshore and offshore wind power, solar power, biomass power, and other new forms of energy in the national power system. At the same time, the Vietnamese Government also emphasized increasing the energy saving and efficient use and reducing the energy intensity in economy by the green growth, sustainable and circulation economy development.

Mr. Dang Hoang An - Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam speaks at the forum.

According to Deputy Minister Dang Hoang An, the development orientation of the energy industry and the energy transition program in Vietnam in the coming years will bring great cooperation opportunities for the foreign energy investors and enterprises including the Czech enterprises. Mr. An emphasized a number of potential areas that the two sides can consider exchanging and seeking cooperation opportunities such as:

- Development of renewable energy, green energy.

- Fuel conversion, environmental treatment for the operating thermal power plants and gas turbines.

- Exploiting the potential of small and medium-sized hydropower projects bounding s with environmental protection, expanding existing hydropower projects and developing the hydropower pump storage plants.

- Solutions to improve efficiency, energy saving and efficient use.

- Transferring the advanced technologies in energy exploitation and production.

- Newly developing the transmission grid system, upgrading and modernizing the existing grid system, applying smart grid technology (Smart Grid).

- Modernizing the management and dispatching systems of the power system, developing the electricity market at all levels, improving the capacity of the energy institutional building and management in the economy...

Mr. Jozef Síkela - Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic speaks at the forum.

The Deputy Minister Dang Hoang An emphasized The Czech Republic has traditional strength on the energy technology, power generation, mining, a developed mechanical engineering industry, and strong potential in science and technology. Vietnam is a country with rapidly increasing electricity and energy demands and has a strong energy transition plan. It can be seen that the energy cooperation potential of the two sides is a lot for development.

According to Mr. Jozef Síkela - Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic, this energy forum is a continuation of the visit of EVN representatives to Prague (Czech Republic) in June 2022 during the 7th session of the Czech-Vietnamese Government Cooperative Joint Committee. The Czech Republic considers Vietnam a very close friend, like-minded partner and one of the most important markets outside of Europe.

The Czech Republic is one of the most industrial developed countries in Europe. Czech companies have a lot of experience in implementing and supplying equipment for large energy projects around the world. The Czech energy companies have enough technical capabilities, as well as experience in energy transition, to support Vietnam in general and EVN in particular in achieving the set targets.

Mr. Vo Quang Lam - Deputy General Director of EVN speaks at the forum.

Speaking at the forum, Mr. Vo Quang Lam – EVN Deputy General Director informed that at the present, the capacity of power plants in Vietnam is leading in Southeast Asia. In the current structure of Vietnam's power plants, hydropower plants account for 29%, the renewable energy projects account for 26%, and coal-fired thermal power projects account for 33%. The energy transition process will be a lever for the coming growth, especially in light of the post-Covid-19 green recovery by encouraging the new investment, creating the new jobs and increasing the competition capability of the economy.

Mr. Vo Quang Lam considered it is a favorable opportunity for the parties to exchange and share experiences, creating favorable conditions for cooperation between EVN and partners from the Czech Republic, helping to develop the energy industry of the two countries.

At the forum, the delegates listened to a number of presentations from Czech enterprises on power plant technology and power industry. In it, there was a presentation by ČEPS - the only unit for operating, maintaining and developing the power transmission system of Czech Republic; ENELEX – a specializing company on online coal quality analysis and quality management system; STROJÍRNY BRNO – a specializing company on water turbines and mechanical equipment; The Czech Mining Technology Association (CDT) – specializing the equipment for the exhaust gas filtering, air conditioning and ventilation in power plants, etc.

The Czech Republic is a country with a highly developed scientific, technical and economic foundation. Companies from the Czech Republic with a staff of the good qualified experts, good practical experience in the power system operation in the context of the Czech energy industry preparing for the gradual phase out of coal from the power system.

The energy sectors of Vietnam and the Czech Republic have similarities when coal is still the main source for electricity supply. Therefore, the experience of the partner from the Czech Republic in the electricity industry, energy transition to reduce net emissions, and implementation of international commitments to respond to climate change is considered to be useful for Vietnam in the coming period.