The lead bank is the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank), which has agreed to loan 56% of the total to the 220MW scheme being developed by Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN).
The other three banks providing loans under the deal are the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BIDV), the Bank for Foreign Trade of Viet Nam (Vietcombank) and the Global Petro Commercial Joinst Stock Bank.
Work on the Ban Chat project, on the Nam Mu river in Than Uyen district of Lai Chau province, commenced about three years ago. The project has a total development budget of VND8.6T (US$485M), and the new loans are, therefore, approximately 30% of the cost.
Construction of Ban Chat began in 2006 and initial plans were to have the plant operational by 2010. The plant is now scheduled to be operating in the first quarter of 2012 and generate 1,300GWh of electricity annually. The project is also to give flood control benefits.
Hydropower capacity in Vietnam is estimated to reach 8.8GW in 2010 and produce 35,000GWh of electricity annually. Power demand in the country is forecast to reach up to 100,000 GWh per year by 2010.
The hydro asset base is estimated to be 15GW by 2020, and generate 60,000GWh per year. The forecast power demand by then is more than 200,000GWh of electricity per year.
