Huoi Quang Hydropower Plant operates and produces electricity safely.

The Huoi Quang Hydropower Plant in Chieng Lao Commune is one of three major hydropower projects in the province, consisting of two units with a total capacity of 520MW, managed by the Huoi Quang - Ban Chat Hydropower Company (in Lai Chau Province). In recent years, the Company has focused on stable operation of the plant, ensuring power supply to the national grid, contributing positively to the local economic growth.

Huoi Quang Hydroelectric Plant, Chieng Lao Commune.

Leading us to visit the factory, Mr. Ngo Van Chung, Manager of the Huoi Quang Operation Workshop, introduced: This is the first underground mountain factory designed and built by Vietnam, with 2 parallel water tunnels, drilled underground in the mountain, 4.2 km long, 7.5 m wide in diameter. The project has a reservoir with a capacity of more than 184 million m³ and a concrete gravity dam, 104 m high, located in Ta Gia commune, Lai Chau province. From 2015 to present, the Huoi Quang Hydropower Plant has connected to the national grid 16.9 billion kWh.

Currently, the factory has 65 staff, workers, of which 45 people directly participate in the operation, arranged in 3 shifts, 5 shifts on duty 24/24h; the rest are the repair and maintenance department of the equipment system. The team of staff, engineers, and workers have high quality professional expertise, meeting the needs of factory operation, preventing subjective incidents, ensuring absolute safety for people and equipment.

Central control room of Huoi Quang Hydropower Plant.

The central control room, considered the “brain” of the Plant, with modern control and monitoring systems. Mr. Pham Van Quyet, Head of Operations, Central Control Room, said: The room is responsible for controlling, monitoring, and operating all equipment systems in the power production line, from the spillway area, the machine room area, to the distribution station, through the computer system and cameras.

Following the tunnel deep into the mountain, visiting the location of 2 generators and parts of the plant, we were impressed by the century-old project of Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN). The team of workers operates the generators through a computer control system. During operation, the plant focuses on digitalization, applying technical management and safety management software; creating electronic operation logs. Installing and upgrading online monitoring systems for generators and connecting the dam monitoring system to the Hydropower Project Control Center ( Son La Hydropower Company) for monitoring.

To ensure safe operation and electricity production, every year, Huoi Quang Hydropower Plant develops a plan to inspect the status of the system, equipment, and review human resources and materials to ensure readiness before the flood season. Propose to the Company to carry out major repairs and maintenance of the flood discharge valve system, spillway, and hydraulic mechanical equipment of the water intake according to regulations. Organize disaster prevention drills; promptly disseminate and inform about the operation and flood discharge regime to the communes and villages downstream of the project...

Thanks to the synchronous implementation of solutions, from the beginning of the year to July 18, the electricity output of Huoi Quang Hydropower Plant reached 962 million kWh, an increase of 13.4% over the same period last year. By the end of 2025, the plant's electricity output is expected to reach and exceed 1.58 billion kWh, contributing to the total electricity output of the whole province.

Power distribution station of Huoi Quang Hydropower Plant.

Mr. Mai Tong Giang, Director of Huoi Quang - Ban Chat Hydropower Company, said: The company regularly monitors weather and hydrological conditions, organizes safe and effective operation of the generators of Huoi Quang Hydropower Plant. Strengthens inspection and supervision during operation, promptly detects abnormalities, focuses on repairing and maintaining technological equipment systems, ensuring safe, stable operation of generators with the highest availability.

In addition, the Company also launched emulation movements, encouraging officers and employees to actively respond to research, propose solutions, initiatives, and technical improvements. In 2024, the Company had 3 EVN-level initiatives and 11 company-level initiatives recognized. Many initiatives are currently being applied in the plant's operations, such as: Improving the working circuit of the main transformer oil cooling system; improving the logic circuit of isolators 941-3, 942-3; improving the output of lines 271, 272; adding over-pressure protection devices to the control devices of the supply valve... Thereby, ensuring stable operation of equipment systems, increasing the reliability coefficient of the unit, improving working conditions and environment, increasing labor productivity, and saving costs in operation management.

With effort, responsibility and dedication, the staff, engineers and workers of Huoi Quang Hydropower Plant are competing day and night in labor and production, ensuring safe operation of the plant, contributing to bringing electricity to all parts of the country.

Source: https://baosonla.vn/kinh-te/thuy-dien-huoi-quang-van-hanh-san-xuat-dien-an-toan-vgdnmU8Ng.html