Hai Phong Thermal Power Plant
They include inviting residents to visit and monitor the operations of thermal power plants, installing surveillance cameras at chimneys and transmitting environmental monitoring data directly to the Hai Phong city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
Environmental protection
On the peak days of the dry season prior to the Lunar New Year in January, although four generating units of the Hai Phong Thermal Power Plant were operating at full capacity, the indicators of temperature, dust, SOx, NOx, and O2 still met environmental standards, according to the operators.
Duong Son Ba, the Deputy General Director of Hai Phong Thermal Power Joint Stock Company, said the Hai Phong 1 and 2 Thermal Power Plants have a capacity of 4 x 300MW, producing about 7.2 billion kWh of electricity per year. The power generation cycle of the plant consists of boilers and turbines. In 2019, the plant produced over 8.1 billion kWh of electricity of which 7.2 billion kWh was assigned by the Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN), consuming about 3.3 million tonnes of coal; and emitting 1.2 million tonnes of fly ash and bottom slag. The fly ash was recovered and used as raw material for cement production, while the slag was transported to a five-hectare dumping site in an enclosed pipeline system, with trees planted around it and water sprayed on it to reduce the amount of dust dispersed into the environment.
“We always seriously follow the Law on Environmental Protection. Specifically, for dust in exhaust gas, the company is equipped with ESP electrostatic dust filter, dust filtration efficiency up to 99.67 percent.
For SOx in exhaust gas, equipped with FGD system using wet limestone injection technology to separate SOx in exhaust smoke, the reduction efficiency reaches over 90 percent. For NOx in exhaust gas, the two factories applied decentralized type technology to minimize the possibility of generating NOx,” Duong Son Ba said.
Monitoring data are transmitted online to specialized management agencies and local authorities
Transparent environment information
In accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Hai Phong Thermal Power Plant also adjusted its environmental monitoring program. At Thermal Power 1, it conducted monitoring four times annually of the noise, and at Thermal Power 2 of the air, water environment and noise in the production area, and monitored the water environment of Hai Phong Thermal Power 1 twice a year.
The results of the periodical monitoring parameters meet the requirements of the current Technical Regulations (QCVN) on the Environment.
All monitoring parameters are sent to the Vietnam Environment Administration, the Hai Phong Department of Environmental Protection, the People’s Committee of Thuy Nguyen District, and the People’s Committee of Tam Hung Commune according to existing regulations and published on the company’s website (www.ndhp.com.vn).
The company also monitors waste water and emissions every three months; the quality of cooling wastewater before discharging it into Bach Dang river once a month; and every three months, it monitors the water quality 100m from the discharge point upstream and one position on the river 100m from the discharge point downstream.
In order to meet higher environmental requirements, the company has set up a project to upgrade and renovate the exhaust gas treatment system to convert fuel from FO oil to DO in order to control emissions right from the beginning and completely eliminate black oil smoke when starting the furnace. It is also upgrading the system of reducing SOx, NOx.
Board Chair Ta Cong Hoan said that in December 2019, the company invited more than 40 residents of Tam Hung Commune (Thuy Nguyen District, Hai Phong City) to visit and learn about the operation of the thermal power plant. “The visitors highly appreciated Hai Phong Thermal Power Joint Stock Company’s efforts in ensuring environmental protection as well as social security in the locality,” he said.
Pham Trong Thuc, Deputy Director of Industrial Safety and the Environmental Technology Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT): MOIT leaders have always closely monitored factories’ environmental protection. With increasing demand for electricity at an average of 10 percent a year, coal-fired thermal power will surely be a major source of supply for the national grid. The MOIT will strengthen supervision of environmental protection at coal-fired thermal power plants to ensure stable electricity production and meet environmental requirements.