CSG Furthers Power Interconnectivity with Lancang-Mekong Countries

Nanning - Senior managers from China Southern Power Grid were in attendance for the Opening Ceremony and roving exhibition during the recent 16th China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO).

CAEXPO 2019 highlights China's import industry and focuses on opening the international community to ASEAN. It provides an effective bridge for ASEAN products to enter the Chinese market, keeping close pace with the CAFTA Investment Agreement and aims to build a platform for Chinese enterprises to make overseas investments in ASEAN.

CAEXPO 2019 also incorporates exhibitions, seminars, briefing conferences, contract signing ceremonies, as well as high-end events that attract wide attendance of government officials, entrepreneurs as well as scholars and experts and earns a solid global reputation of exhibitions and conferences.

Prior to the start of CAEXPO 2019, China Southern Power Grid hosted the 6th Lancang-Mekong Power Utility Summit and co-hosted the China-ASEAN Electric Power Cooperation and Development Forum 2019 with China Electricity Council and CAEXPO Secretariat.

CSG has been consistently implementing a strategy of promoting interconnectivity with its Lancang-Mekong country neighbors.

China Southern Power Grid has earned the trust of these neighboring countries - such as Laos and Vietnam - with high-quality interconnectivity projects.

Current power supply projects for the Laos-China Railway continue in orderly progression, as well as:

· CSG and Electricite du Laos (EDL) have agreed on critical terms to ensure the start of construction – by the end of this year - as well as expanded Sino-Laos 500kV Interconnectivity,

· Sino-Vietnam Interconnectivity, and

· Sino-Myanmar 500kV Interconnectivity Projects are all underway

China Southern Power Grid has been vibrantly improving this important cooperation effort, strengthening people-to-people and technological exchanges and consolidating this cooperation foundation by hosting the Lancang-Mekong Power Utility Summit and carrying out international exchange programs for Lancang-Mekong students.

New Era of Power Interconnectivity

Last April 30, with the attendance of President Xi Jinping and Lao President Bounnhang Vorachit, Mr. Meng Zhenping, Board Chairman of China Southern Power Grid and Mr. Boun Oum Syvanpheng, Managing Director of EDL inked an important shareholder’s agreement between CSG and EDL on a Power Supply Project for the Laos-China Railway.

“Over the past four months since the signing of the shareholder’s agreement and after dozens of negotiations, we have also seen agreements on a number of vital terms,” said Huang Wengang, a member of the Laos-China Railway Project and a senior leader of CSG Yunnan International Co., Ltd., adding that, “preparations are going well. We want to make sure the construction starts within this year to guarantee the operation of China-Laos Railway in 2021.”

The Laos-China Railway is the first BOT project undertaken in the Lancang-Mekong countries. Plans call for 10 new traction substations to be established and connected to the power grid in Laos … more than 266 km of 115-kV transmission lines are expected to be built and 10 transmission line bays will be upgraded.

All construction is slated for completion and placed into operation by the end of March 2021.

In addition to the Power Supply Project for Laos-China Railway, solid progess has been made in other projects such as the Laos’ EDL-T, interconnectivity projects between China and Laos for 500kV power supply and those with Vietnam and Myanmar.

Power interconnectivity among Lancang-Mekong countries has always been a significant area of development for enhancing CSG’s relationships with the Lancang-Mekong community to realize a shared future … and a key element of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Located in the heart of Guangdong Province, China Southern Power Grid enjoys natural geographical advantages as it buttresses several border countries along Mekong River such as Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar.

Efforts to promote interconnectivity between CSG and China’s neighbors dates back to September 25, 2004 when the 110Kv power lines between Hekou of Yunnan Province and Lào Cai in Vietnam began operation. Since these origins, CSG has mitigated power shortages in the northern part of Vietnam and Laos and Myanmar have made significant contributions to their socioeconomic growth by building 13 110kV or above power lines connected to the three countries.

China Southern Power Grid has been diligent in earning a professional international image by completing these quality projects – on time - and on budget!

Since the Vinh Tan 1 Thermal Power Plant BOT Project began operation in Vietnam, the system has been working at full capacity and all technical, economic and environmental indicators are up to the international standards listed within the BOT contract.

By the end of August 2019, the project had sold more than eight billion kWh of electricity to Southern Vietnam, greatly easing the nation’s electricity shortages. The Nam Tha 1 Hydropower Plant, which started commercial operation on April 1 of this year in Laos, not only greatly enhanced the quality of life for residents living near the reservoir but served as another example of CSG earning the trust of the local community.

This friendship has is the hallmark of win-win mutual cooperation while earning the respect and trust through the completion of and launch of these high-quality projects.

CSG and Lancang-Mekong countries are opening a new chapter in power interconnectivity.

More Cooperation Coming

Srip Hung, an international student from Thailand, is now studying in China. Her biggest goal is, “to improve her Chinese language skills so she can find a good job in Thailand after graduation.” The varied tuition and living expenses associated with her studies in China are being sponsored by CSG, which launched an aggressive education program in 2010 to financially sponsor students from Southeast Asian countries to study in China.

Every year, five students from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand will be fully supported by CSG to study Electric Power as undergraduate students at Kunming University of Science and Technology so, upon graduation, they can go back and work for their respective nations.

More than 60 students have directly benefited from this program.

CSG has been consolidating its partnerships with power departments and companies in neighboring countries by conducting varied exchanges in management experience, technology and business training.

In January and July of this year, senior managers of China Southern Power Grid organized frist and second-level training programs for the Lancang-Mekong Power Interconnectivity Cooperationn Project in Guangzhou and Kunming to share technical standards and managerial experiences.

Hguyen Van Dung from the Vietnam Institute of Electrical Power participated in the first training program, saying, “the courses are well-targeted and systematic. I was able to talk with China’s top energy experts about some cutting edge issues and I learned a lot from it.”

As a business practice, China Southern Power Grid, places the highest emphasis on the value of technical exchanges. During the construction of Vinh Tan 1 Thermal Power Plant, chief editors from CSG worked with investors and construction units to compile a 659-page Glossary of Technical Terms for Coal-fired Power Plant in Vietnamese, Chinese and English consisting 33,000 individual terminologies.

In 2019, CSG organized a national strategy consisting of a series of activities coinciding with the 2019 Lancang-Mekong Week.

China Southern Power Grid held spring receptions and invited representative of more than 100 units ranging from Chinese embassies and power departments, power companies, organizations, commercial chambers and media located in Lancang-Mekong countries as well as hosting Chinese speech contests and networking events for students from Lancang-Mekong coutries in Nanning and Kunming, providing platforms for information exchange and enhancing friendship and mutual trust.

Apart from these important people-to-people exchanges, CSG originated the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Summit as a platform for cooperation. Since its inception in 2014, the summit has been held six consecutive years.

CSG senior managers also took part in bilateral and multilateral exchange platforms organized by other countries to create additional business-to-business exchanges and building relationships with its counterparts located throughout Lancang-Mekong region.

To further power interconnectivity with neighboring countries in the future, CSG will continue to utilize its geographical advantages to improve these and many more cooperative mechanisms.