On 15^th March 2021, The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Ninh Thuan Provincial People’s Committee jointly held a ceremony of flow block and water storage at the node structure cluster – Cai River Reservoir under Tan My Irrigation Project at Bac Ai District, Ninh Thuan Province.

Attendants at the ceremony included: On behalf of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, there was Mr. Nguyen Xuan Cuong – Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Hiep – Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry, Mr. Hoang Van Thang – Former Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry, leaders of Departments and Management Board of Irrigation Investment and Construction 7. On behalf of Provincial leaders of Ninh Thuan, there was Mr. Nguyen Duc Thanh – Member of Central Party’s Executive Committee cum Provincial Party Secretary cum Chairman of Provincial People’s Council, Mr. Tran Quoc Nam – Deputy Secretary of Provincial Committee cum Chairman of Provincial People’ Committee, Leaders of Provincial Standing Committee, People’s committee, People’s council and other representatives of Ninh Thuan Provincial departments, Leaders of Bac Ai District, People’s Committee of Ninh Son District, People’s Committee of Phuoc Hoa Commune and construction units of design advising, construction supervising and the majority of inhabitants in the project area. On the side of Construction Joint Stock Company 47 (the leader of the consortium of contractors for the construction of package 20 including the main dam and the sub-dam No. 01), there were Mr. Pham Nam Phong – Vice Chairman of the Board of Management (BOM), Mr. Vo Trong Hieu – Member of the Board of Management cum Member of the Audit Committee, Mr. Duong Minh Quang – Member of the Board of Management cum General Director, Mr. and Mrs. members of the Board of Directors, Deputy Head of functional departments of the Company.

Tan My irrigation system project was executed construction in two phases, phase one from August 2010, phase two from December 2018, this is a multi-purpose project, adapting to climate change and restructing the Agriculture sector, crucial for the socio-economic development of Ninh Thuan province, which is also the driest region of the country. Cai River water reservoir of Tan My irrigation system project is a level 1 project, including a main dam and four auxiliary dams creating a reservoir with a capacity of 199.5 million cubic meters, total capacity 219.8 million cubic meters. When put into operation, the system will irrigate and create a source of irrigation for 7,480 ha of agricultural land, watering Nha Trinh – Lam Cam irrigation system to ensure irrigation for 12,000 hectares, water for many areas in lakes: Cho Mo, Ba Rau, Song Trau, Ong Kinh …, serving domestic water, industrial production, aquaculture …. At the same time, it also contributes to reduce floods for downstream, improves rural transport infrastructure, ecological environment, creates sources for two hydropower plants with a capacity of 24MW and Bac Ai storage hydropower operating with a capacity of 1,200MW in contribution to load balance for the national power system.

Since the construction of the project up to now, despite many difficulties, but with the efforts of the consortium of contractors for constructing package 20, led by Construction Joint Stock Company 47, along with the timely assistance of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the People’s Committee of Ninh Thuan province, the People’s Committee of Bac Ai district, Ninh Son district, especially the leaders and people of Phuoc Hoa and Lam Son communes. Currently, the whole cluster of key works of Song Cai Reservoir has completed more than 95% of the workload. The works have been inspected by the Investor-level Acceptance Council, State Inspection Council on construction works in terms of investigating and appreciating the quality, fine arts, and agreed to allow blocking water inflow in order to bring into full play efficiency, contributing to stabilizing the people’s life and socio-economic development of Ninh Thuan.

With the professionalism and efforts of Construction Joint Stock Company 47 and the supervision and construction units … Phase 1 of Bac Ai Pumped-Storage Hydropower project is the work cluster of Discharge gate which is now complete in terms of key work items and expected to be inspected in mid-March 2021, 15 days ahead of schedule.

Bac Ai Pumped-Storage Hydropower Plant is on the list of power source projects approved by the Prime Minister in Decision No. 428 / QD-TTg dated March 18, 2016 Approving the adjusted electricity development planning for the period 2011 – 2020 with a vision to 2030 (Power Development Plan VII adjusted). This is the first pumped hydropower project in Vietnam, invested by Vietnam Electricity (EVN).

The project is implemented in 2 phases, in which the outlet cluster is the Phase 1 of the project, approved by EVN in Decision No. 398 / QD-EVN dated October 9, 2019. Phase 1 has a total investment of 185 billion VND, started construction from January 2020; Construction Joint Stock Company 47 is the main construction contractor. All the items of this discharge outlet cluster are located in the riverbed of Cai River which is the lower lake of pumped – storage hydropower plant. Phase 1 is planned to be completed in the first quarter of this year in order to ensure synchronism with the progress of the reservoir impoundment of Cai River’s lake under the Tan My Irrigation System project invested by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Cai River’s lake will start water storage in early April 2021).

Despite many challenges due to the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020 along with many years of experience in the fields of Hydropower, Industrial construction … Construction Joint Stock Company 47 has closely coordinated with the consulting unit of supervision, construction, representative of the investor … to follow the set progress. During the Tan Suu Lunar New Year holiday in 2021, the units also gathered human resources, conducted 3 consecutive shifts to complete the project on schedule. Thanks to that professionalism and efforts, 100% of the main work items such as: Discharge hatch, outlet, forcebay and downstream discharge channel have been completed. The project is completing the remaining works: Return the work site, complete the landfill area; relocation of tents, auxiliary, concrete mixing plant … It is expected that the discharge gate cluster will be completed in mid-March 2021, 15 days ahead of schedule.

Phase 2 of the project is the key work items; and the remaining synchronous works will be constructed in early 2022 to ensure the progress of power generation in December 2026. The entire Bac Ai Pumped-Storage Hydropower project is expected to be completed by the end of 2028. Currently, the survey and bidding to choose the technical design consultant for phase 2 has been completely prepared.

Bac Ai Pumped-Storage Hydropower Project with a capacity of 1,200 MW – is the largest pumped-storage hydropower project in Southeast Asia, with a total investment of about VND 21,100 billion. The project uses the water source of Cai River’ lake belonging to Tan My irrigation system to pump up the lake to accumulate water for electricity generation through 2 parallel tunnels with a diameter of 5.5-7.5m with a total length each tunnel is more than 2.7km. When put into operation, the plant will help reduce the difference in the load chart when mobilizing pump capacity during off-peak hours and generating electricity at peak hours, thereby helping to stabilize the system and ensure the national electricity system to be in stable, safe and reliable operation. This is very meaningful in the context of rapidly growing renewable energy sources, many solar and wind power plants with large installed capacity continue to be invested and put into operation.