Russia’s Inter RAO to develop $2.4bn thermal power plant in central Vietnam A Russian energy firm will invest US$2.4 billion to develop a thermal power plant in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Binh, a local official said Tuesday.   Inter RAO Group and the Quang Binh administration closed a memorandum of understanding following a meeting on January 28, according to the province’s website. Phan Van Thuong, director of the provincial Department of Industry and Trade, confirmed the MoU with The Saigon Times Onlineyesterday, adding the province will submit the project proposal to the government within the first quarter. The Quang Trach 2 thermal power plant will be constructed at the Quang Trach Power Center in the eponymous district, and will have a total capacity of 2,400MW, according to the Quang Binh administration’s website. The $2.4 billion project will be developed under the BOT (build – operate – transfer) scheme. During the January 28 meeting, Quang Binh promised to create conditions to facilitate Inter RAO, whereas the Russian company also said it will arrange capital and implement the project as committed. Thuong was quoted by The Saigon Times Online as saying that the facility is scheduled to be commissioned somewhere between 2024 and 2025. Quang Trach District is also home to the Quang Trach 1 thermal power plant project, developed by the state-run oil and gas giant PetroVietnam, according to the Ho Chi Minh City-based economic newswire. The $1.7 billion facility has a design capacity of 1,200MW and is expected to add 8.5 billion kWh a year to the national grid. The Quang Trach 1 project has been progressing behind schedule, with Quang Binh and PetroVietnam trying to put it into operation by 2020, according to the Vietnam News Agency. Inter RAO Group is headquartered in Moscow, and operates in the fields of electric power and heat generation, retail electricity sales, international power trading, power industry engineering, export of power industry equipment and management of distribution grids outside of Russia, according to its website. The company’s total installed capacity of generation facilities is about 35 GW. In 2013, the company’s plants produced over 146 billion KWh of electric power. Inter RAO is also a leading energy export and import operator in Russia, which supplies electricity to Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Mongolia, Ukraine and South Ossetia, according to the website. In 2014, it exported 14 billion kWh and imported 3.5 billion kWh of electric power. Tuoitrenews