Coal industry actively overcomes the consequences of typhoon Yagi to return to normal production
With the spirit of proactiveness and self-reliance, TKV’s flood and storm recovery activities are being urgently implemented. However, it still takes more time for the business to return to normal production activities.
Clearing up fallen trees during the storm to clear the way to the open-pit mine. Spending no money on fuel to run generators to ventilate and pump water at underground mines. Encouraging the spirit and providing 3 meals for miners who have to take time off work... Specific and practical tasks are being implemented at TKV units in Quang Ninh so that they can immediately start production when there is electricity, in order to quickly stabilize the unit's operations after Typhoon Yagi.
3 on-site, 4 ready for normal production target
Present at the Production Control Center of TKV in Ha Long City, Quang Ninh in the mid-morning of September 9, in the working atmosphere of a normal day, there was the rumbling sound of generators, saws, and knives to cut broken branches for easy transportation, and the reminders of employees cleaning up broken branches, roof tiles, and corrugated iron roofs that were blown away by the wind and scattered in the yard and surrounding areas.
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| Cleaning up fallen trees in the yard of TKV's Production Management Area in Ha Long City. |
Because the power grid has not been restored and the phone signal is very unstable in many places, communication between member units and the TKV Production Control Center, in addition to the phone, is sometimes available, sometimes not, and they also have to use cars, motorbikes or "struggle to reach each other".
“Sitting in a room or on a floor above or below but unable to call or make a phone call, having to run to the place to talk” has been the common situation since around 10am on September 7th, when the power grid was cut off and the phone signal was poor due to Typhoon Yagi making landfall, with Quang Ninh being the first locality to be hit by the storm.
In the concentrated coal production area in Quang Ninh, TKV has 3 open-pit coal mining units and 16 underground coal mining units. The number of staff and workers of TKV in Quang Ninh is estimated at about 80,000 people, of which miners account for about 2/3.
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| On the morning of September 8, right after the storm passed, Party Secretary and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Group Ngo Hoang Ngan (standing 5th from right) directed the inspection of overcoming the consequences of storm No. 3 at the units and soon stabilized production again. |
As a large state-owned enterprise, operating in the energy sector for many years, on a large scale and with high professionalism, TKV is also considered to have a lot of experience in responding to annual natural disasters such as storms and floods.
Therefore, in response to the complicated developments of storm No. 3 and the warnings of the hydrometeorological agency, implementing the directives of the Prime Minister, the National Steering Committee, ministries, branches and Quang Ninh province on storm No. 3 prevention and control, on September 4, the Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control - Search and Rescue of TKV issued a dispatch on proactively and focusedly responding to storm No. 3 and heavy rain.
At the same time, the Group has established working groups to inspect the prevention and response to storm No. 3 at the units; assigned the Group's leaders and staff of the specialized departments to be on duty 24/7 at the Production Control Center in Quang Ninh and TKV Headquarters at No. 3 Duong Dinh Nghe (Hanoi) on September 6, 7, and 8 to direct and respond to storm No. 3 as well as inspect and direct at the units.
General Director of the Group Dang Thanh Hai, Deputy General Directors of the Group Phan Xuan Thuy and Nguyen Huy Nam, along with the Group's professional departments and Office, also inspected and directed the work of overcoming the consequences of storm No. 3 at Vang Danh Coal Joint Stock Company, production units in Uong Bi - Dong Trieu, Ha Long and Cam Pha regions.
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| TKV Deputy General Director Vu Anh Tuan (in blue hat) is inspecting the opening of open-pit coal mining after the storm passed. |
Speaking to reporters of Dau Tu Newspaper at the Production Control Center in Quang Ninh on the morning of September 9, Mr. Vu Anh Tuan, Deputy General Director of TKV, Head of the Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Search and Rescue of TKV, said that it is currently impossible to fully calculate the damage because it is not possible to count, evaluate, and summarize the damage due to the lack of smooth communication and the lack of electricity grid to observe all production and business activities.
In addition to stopping production due to lack of electricity but still having to run generators to pump water to prevent flooding and ventilate, there are also fallen trees that need to be cleaned up and damage to roads, houses or production equipment that have not been inventoried due to the impact of the storm being too severe.
“Although there is no electricity grid to resume production, TKV’s underground mining units still have to run generators to pump water out to avoid flooding in the mine and to serve ventilation. The estimated cost of fuel to serve these activities of TKV is also from 11-13 billion VND/day,” said Mr. Tuan.
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According to the leader of TKV, TKV has invited the leader of Quang Ninh Electricity Company to work with the spirit of being ready to bring both people and equipment to support the electricity industry in the process of handling incidents caused by the storm, in order to quickly restore power to the grid.
Currently, there are several mobile working groups with machinery from TKV accompanying the electricity industry to support handling the consequences of typhoon Yagi.
With the actual annual revenue of TKV being about 150,000 billion VND, of which in Quang Ninh area it is about 100,000 billion VND/year, the early restoration of production is an urgent expectation of TKV and its units.
Open pit mining gradually returns to normal
The opening ceremony of Deo Nai - Coc Sau TKV Coal Joint Stock Company on the morning of September 9th echoed with the sound of machines.
Mr. Nguyen Duc Vinh, Head of the Mining Technology Department (KCM), said that before the storm arrived, the unit had strictly followed the instructions of superiors, developed a storm prevention plan, and set up a 24/7 duty schedule. On the mine site, there were staff on duty in essential areas.
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| The drainage system of the Deo Nai - Coc Sau TKV Coal Company quarry has not had to operate much because the amount of rain caused by the storm until noon on September 9 was not large, less than 100 mm. |
“As an open-pit coal mine, the biggest concern is drainage and flooding of the mining pit. However, despite the unprecedented strong winds of storm No. 3, the rainfall was small, only about 100 mm, so there is currently no impact on water and flooding. The biggest concern is that if there is heavy rain after the storm, we will have to add more resources to handle it,” said Mr. Vinh.
However, due to the impact of the storm, the corrugated iron roof of the entire office area at the quarry site was blown away, along with collapsed walls and ceilings. About 30 units were affected by this situation.
In addition, the amount of fallen trees was quite large, estimated to affect an area of 500 hectares, including trees planted on industrial sites, at restored waste dumps and on the road leading to the mine.
There were also about 50 excavator vehicles with broken windows due to collisions under the impact of strong winds.
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Trees knocked down by storm winds along the road to the quarry and the restored landfill will need a lot of time to be pruned and cleaned up to prevent forest fires. |
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With a sense of urgency, on the morning of September 8, the Company held a meeting with key committees and established 4 working groups to overcome the consequences of architectural works, factories, mining - electromechanical transport, communications - trees, etc.
By the end of the first shift on September 8, the road to the mining site of Deo Nai - Coc Sau TKV Coal Joint Stock Company had been cleared. On the working day of Monday, September 9, all open-air production areas were back to normal, and workers had basically gone to work and had jobs immediately.
About 4,000 officers and employees of the Company have returned to work.
However, due to the lack of electricity and the entire company only having about 7 generators, normal operations could not be restored.
The Company's executive office in Cam Pha City still has no electricity, so it must use generators to maintain operations. The remaining generators are concentrated for repair facilities to fix equipment and kitchen damage.
At the mine site, the operating units also had to concentrate most of their workforce in the canteen area about 10 km away from the mining site to have a safe place to work while waiting for the facilities to be repaired.
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| Hot lunch at the Company office. |
Thanks to the generator operating continuously, the kitchen's cooking to serve workers is maintained stably, contributing to the staff's ability to deal with the aftermath of storms and floods and to work.
Mr. Vinh said that the current task is to stabilize the positions of operators to manage the production shifts. Also, because there is no electricity grid and most of the phone signal is not available, the information connection is not as smooth as usual.
"To report or discuss work, we have to send someone to the place to discuss it, we can't just call quickly and conveniently like usual," he said.
It is known that in Quang Ninh region, open-pit production units have returned to production at about 70%.
“We want to go to work”
The Cam Dong apartment building of TKV Ha Long Coal Company in Cam Pha City is noisy with the loud explosion of a 1,000 KVA generator and the shouts of people coming to clean up fallen trees, fallen leaves, and bricks and corrugated iron flying from other places.
Like those who are cleaning up the mess left by Typhoon Yagi at TKV's Quang Ninh Operation Center in Ha Long, these women cleaning up at Cam Dong Apartment have not finished cleaning their houses after the storm but still go to work.
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| Haven't had time to clean my own house yet but still go to work to clean the company. |
“Children are off school to look after each other so their parents can go to work, and finish their work so they can come home and cook for their children because the electricity is out and the children can’t cook for themselves. Luckily, the house has a gas stove and a honeycomb coal stove so the fire is still burning to keep them warm” - is a common sentiment shared by many women in the environmental company of the coal industry.
Mr. Dinh Anh Tuan, generator manager at Cam Dong Apartment, said that the machine consumes about 140 liters of oil per hour. To serve the needs of about 500 miners living in the apartment complex, this large-capacity generator has been mobilized to work continuously and only occasionally rests to cool down.
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| The generator runs almost continuously to ensure miners have fans and air conditioning to rest. |
Not only having enough electricity to run the cooling system, even turning on the air conditioner, Ha Long Coal Company has also rushed to buy an additional 300 m3 of clean water for the miners' daily life since September 9.
Previously, since Friday evening (September 6), the company's production activities have stopped to avoid the storm and currently cannot be re-established due to the lack of grid power, except for water pumping and ventilation activities with the help of generators.
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| Three miners from Ha Giang, Giang Van Vu, Giang My Tech, and Vang A Tung (from right to left), are looking forward to returning to work soon. |
In a 20 square meter apartment room, three miners from Ha Giang, Giang Van Vu (38 years old), Giang My Tenh (23 years old), and Vang A Tung (24 years old), were resting and surfing their phones, even though the internet connection was intermittent.
Miner Giang Van Vu, a Mong ethnic, confided that he earns about 22-23 million VND per month from working about 24 jobs. Most of this money is sent back home to his wife and 3 children.
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| Wifi and hallways are still lit because the company runs generators to ensure the lives of workers. |
“The storm and power outage made me feel very anxious and unable to go to work. I was bedridden for days, even though I had electricity to run a fan and had enough food to eat, I didn’t have to worry about anything, but my hands and feet were upset. Sometimes I could call home and I felt relieved because everyone was okay,” Giang Van Vu shared.
Also struggling with the question "when will we be able to go to work?", Giang My Tenh, who has a 7-month-old baby, shared that going to work provides income, but lying around and sitting around not knowing what to do all day makes her very tired.
Every month of normal work, Giang My Tenh earns about 22-23 million VND, the highest month is 25 million VND. This income level is also considered by this young miner to be higher than many other companies, so he is still constantly contributing.
Sharing with reporters of Dau Tu Newspaper, Mr. Do Van Hung, Chairman of the Ha Long Coal Company's trade union, said that although there is no electricity grid to restore production, the company still runs generators every day to pump water and ventilate the mine.
Every day, the fuel cost for this stage alone is about 800 million VND. The current water pumping speed at the mine of the company is about 2,000 m3/hour.
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| Buy clean water to supply to workers in the apartment building. |
“The company’s leadership’s view is that 800 million VND is acceptable because if water is not continuously pumped into the mine, it will lead to the possibility of flooding in the mine, meaning that the technical conditions are not guaranteed to quickly restore production activities when the grid returns to normal. Thus, the loss will be even greater later,” said Mr. Hung.
As a mining unit with an output of about 1.8 million tons/year, Ha Long Coal Company currently has about 2,100 miners out of a total of 3,700 employees. Currently, to serve water pumping and air ventilation, the company mobilizes about 270 miners. The remaining miners are on leave.
There are about 500 miners living in Cam Dong Apartment and about 300 miners living in Quang Hanh Apartment, the rest are at home or staying outside. Because the Quang Hanh Apartment has electricity again, we only have to worry about the Cam Dong area in Cam Pha City - considered the most devastated area in Typhoon Yagi.
“The company’s apartment building runs a generator to serve cooking, cooling fans and air conditioning for the workers. We have also found many ways to buy clean water and pump it up to the tank for our brothers to use. The company also opened its doors and called on the company’s miners who live outside to buy tickets for the communal kitchen in the apartment building so that they do not have to worry about food and drink during the days when life outside has not been restored due to power and water outages. Many people when coming in to eat also take the opportunity to bring their phones and fans in to charge so they have something to use,” Mr. Hung shared.
In addition to the number of workers concentrated in two apartment buildings, before the storm, the Company also carefully reviewed the situation of the remaining workers' families and promptly encouraged and visited some families in difficulty right after the storm passed so that they could soon return to normal life.
"We hope that authorities at all levels and the electricity sector will prioritize the coal industry so that electricity and water supply can soon return to normal, serving coal production and mining activities," said Mr. Hung.
With the spirit of being proactive and self-reliant, TKV's flood and storm recovery activities are being implemented quickly, urgently and smoothly. However, the desire to quickly return to normal production to contribute to society and reduce the pressure of increasing costs is a practical need.
“TKV - as a State-owned corporation, one of the three energy pillars of the country - has been actively joining hands in supporting the electricity industry and local authorities to soon return to normal life,” said TKV Deputy General Director Vu Anh Tuan.
With the professional cooperation of TKV, the questions "when can we go to work" of miners like Giang Van Vu, Giang My Tenh, and Vang A Tung will certainly be answered quickly.
Source: https://baodautu.vn/nganh-than-tich-cuc-khac-phuc-hau-qua-bao-yagi-de-quay-lai-san-xuat-binh-thuong-d224502.html
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