Clean electricity export: A long way to go

In addition to the on-site wind measurement activities being carried out, the Petroleum Technical Services Corporation (PTSC) welcomed a delegation from the Singapore Government to work on the Offshore Wind Power Project with the aim of producing and exporting clean electricity to Singapore.

Open opportunities to sell clean electricity

Singapore has limited renewable energy resources and wants to access the abundant clean power in the region by connecting to the regional grid. This will also promote the development of renewable energy in the region and pave the way for the realization of the vision of the ASEAN Power Grid, according to the website of the Energy Market Authority of Singapore (EMA).

To realise the set target, EMA has approved the conditional import of about 4 GW of clean electricity by 2025 from neighboring countries, including 1 GW from Cambodia, 2 GW from Indonesia and 1.2 GW from Vietnam. For Vietnam, in October 2023, the agency conditionally approved Sembcorp Utilities Pte Ltd (SCU – a wholly owned subsidiary of Sembcorp Industries Ltd) to import 1.2 GW of clean electricity from Vietnam to Singapore.

Based on SCU’s proposal, this imported electricity will be exploited from offshore wind energy, developed in cooperation with the Petroleum Technical Services Corporation (PTSC), and transmitted from Vietnam to Singapore via new submarine cables stretching about 1,000 km.

Construction of offshore wind power base at PTSC Vung Tau port

In Vietnam, after being licensed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to fully implement marine resource monitoring, investigation, survey and assessment activities in August 2023, 2024 is the time for PTSC to conduct offshore surveys to serve the development of the Offshore Wind Power Project with the goal of producing electricity and exporting clean electricity to Singapore.

In March 2024, PTSC welcomed a delegation from the Singapore Government to visit its facilities and work on the Project. During this working trip, the Singapore Government's authorities witnessed the most modern infrastructure, facilities, and equipment in the Asia-Pacific region newly invested by PTSC to serve offshore renewable energy projects around the world, including this international project.

Through the working session, the Singaporean Government's functional agencies affirmed that they will continue to support PTSC and its partners in the implementation of the Project, not only helping Singapore soon achieve the goal of reducing net emissions to "0" by 2050, but also further tightening the bilateral cooperation relationship between Singapore and Vietnam, realizing the Digital Economy - Green Economy Partnership between the two countries.

This has further strengthened the trust of the Singapore Government's authorities in choosing Vietnam as the final country in the target of importing about 4 GW of clean electricity to Singapore from 2030, with PTSC as a co-investor and developer of the Project.

On the part of PTSC and SCU, after being granted a survey license and conditional approval by the authorities of the two countries at the end of 2023 to import clean electricity from Vietnam to Singapore, related work is also being promoted to successfully implement the Project.

The road is long

Mr. Le Manh Hung, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam), said that offshore wind power is a focus in the Group's strategic shift. Petrovietnam is building a portfolio of offshore wind power projects, reporting to competent authorities; implementing human resource training; cooperating with large corporations in the world and directly investing, participating in the global supply chain of offshore wind power, moving towards autonomy in developing offshore wind power.

Before coming to the Wind Farm Project to export electricity to Singapore, in recent years, PTSC was the only Vietnamese enterprise to win international bids to construct offshore wind power bases and wind power transformer stations for foreign investors. Up to now, many bases and mechanical components manufactured by PTSC have been exported to Taiwan (China) and Nordic countries.

PTSC General Director, Mr. Le Manh Cuong, said that PTSC has more than 30 years of experience in providing technical services for large domestic and international oil and gas projects. In particular, in the field of oil and gas mechanics, there have been more than 100 projects successfully implemented domestically and internationally. In particular, the projects that PTSC won international bids for are projects with strict requirements on technology and progress.

Knowing the PTSC brand through oil and gas mechanical projects, foreign offshore wind power project investors have visited and inspected PTSC's capacity many times and assessed that, "PTSC is completely capable of providing transformer station and base fabrication services for offshore wind power projects".

Speaking to reporters from Dau Tu Newspaper, Mr. Le Manh Cuong said that the Ba Ria - Vung Tau Offshore Wind Farm Project has a scale of 2.3 GW, with an efficiency of about 46%, will help to have 1.2 GW of clean electricity, along with a submarine cable of more than 1,000 km leading to Singapore with a scale of no less than 10 billion USD.

Despite the large potential for offshore wind power, Vietnam has not been able to exploit this energy source due to the lack of a legal framework. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has recently proposed establishing a pilot research project to develop offshore wind power to serve domestic electricity demand. There has been no mention of projects to serve electricity export. Even with the development of offshore wind power for domestic electricity demand, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has also listed overlapping issues that require consultation and policy development to develop this power source.

Therefore, Mr. Le Manh Cuong proposed that while the Government has not yet built and completed a stable and long-term policy mechanism, it needs to have documents, mechanisms and projects to allow Petrovietnam, PTSC and enterprises with sufficient capacity and conditions to apply and implement a number of offshore wind power projects under pilot mechanisms and specific policies to promote internal strength. Priority should be given to domestic enterprises, corporations and state-owned corporations participating in this field.

According to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), 10.8 GW of new offshore wind capacity was installed in 2023, up 24% from the previous year. Total global wind capacity by the end of 2023 reached 75.2 GW.

GWEC also forecasts that 410 GW of new offshore wind capacity will be installed over the next 10 years. The locations that will see strong growth in offshore wind in the coming years include Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brazil, Colombia, Ireland and Poland.