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The Hòa Bình Dam on the Black River () is the largest hydroelectric dam in
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...
from 1994 to 2012 (this record was broken by
Sơn La Dam Sơn La Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Black River in Ít Ong, Mường La District, Sơn La Province, Vietnam. It is the largest hydroelectric power station in Southeast Asia. History The project was proposed in the 1970s. Several stud ...
), and one of the largest in Southeast Asia, with a generating capacity of . The Sông Đà Reservoir, with a capacity of 9 billion m³ was formed as the river was dammed. The dam is located in Hòa Bình City of the Hòa Bình Province in the north of Vietnam. It measures in height, and in length. It is owned by
Vietnam Electricity Vietnam Electricity (full name: Vietnam Electricity Group, abbreviated name: EVN, vi, Tập đoàn Điện lực Việt Nam) is the largest power company in Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Re ...
and operated by the Hoa Binh Hydro Power Company.


Construction

In 1961, the
North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...
government established a committee on exploring hydropower sites. This was followed by construction of the Thác Bà Dam, starting in 1963. After the Vietnamese reunification, damming the Black River was explored. Financed and built with
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
and Russian money and experts, construction on the
rockfill dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, a ...
began on November 6, 1979 and was completed in December 1994. The responsible engineer on site of the project was Russian Pavel Bagachenko. In 1986, the river was fully dammed. The first generator unit went operational in 1988, with the final unit starting in 1994. The Russian engineers used experience from building the
Aswan Dam The Aswan Dam, or more specifically since the 1960s, the Aswan High Dam, is one of the world's largest embankment dams, which was built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt, between 1960 and 1970. Its significance largely eclipsed the previous Aswan ...
for the construction. The dam structure goes up to 280 m deep in the surrounding rock. 30,000 workers, 5,000 soldiers and 750 Russian engineers and 1,000 Vietnamese construction managers participated in the construction. Many of the Vietnamese volunteered to help with the construction of the dam.Hoang Viet Cuong. (2009). Hoa binh hydropower – the great work of 20th century. 06/10, 2014
/ref> During construction there were 168 deaths, 11 Russian experts and 157 Vietnamese. The dam was built to high safety standards, due to earthquake risk in the area, and the enormous impact of dam failure. 12 million people would become homeless if the dam were to fail, and parts of Hanoi could be 30 m under water. A letter from the Russian engineers to the future generation of Vietnamese people was sealed inside a concrete monument, to be opened on January 1, 2100.


Power generation

Power is generated by utilizing eight
turbines A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating e ...
with a capacity of , totaling an installed capacity of . When the dam was first completed, it fulfilled between 30% and 50% of Vietnam's electricity output. As this exceeded the demand of northern Vietnam, a 1,487 km north–south high-voltage line had to be constructed. By 2016 the dam accounted for 6% of Vietnam's total electricity output. Each year approximately 10 billion kWh of electricity is generated by the dam, providing around half of the government revenue of Hòa Bình Province. Since the dam went operational, as of 2021 it had produced a cumulative 230 billion kWh of electricity. The dam is staffed by 800 workers. In January 2021, an expansion project commenced, adding an additional 480 MW to the generating capacity. When it is completed in 2024, the maximum electricity generation output of the dam will be 2400 MW.


Impact

In addition to electricity generation, the dam helps to ensure the stability of the power grid, protects
Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...
and the
Red River Delta The Red River Delta or Hong River Delta ( vi, Châu thổ sông Hồng) is the flat low-lying plain formed by the Red River and its distributaries merging with the Thái Bình River in northern Vietnam. ''Hồng'' (紅) is a Sino-Vietnamese wo ...
against floods, and helps to keep the downstream river navigable. Since its completion, the dam controlled dozens of major floods. 11,141 households, approximately 89,720 people, were relocated with 13 thousand ha of land being submerged. On the neighboring Tượng Hill, an 18m high, 400 ton statue of
Ho Chi Minh (: ; born ; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), commonly known as ('Uncle Hồ'), also known as ('President Hồ'), (' Old father of the people') and by other aliases, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman. He served as Pri ...
stands looking over the dam. The story goes that when Ho Chi Minh crossed the Red River here in a boat during the nation's struggle for independence against America he was so frustrated with the difficulty that he proclaimed that when North and South are reunified a dam will be built to calm the mighty river.


See also

*
List of power stations in Vietnam The following page lists some of the power stations in Vietnam. Coal Source : Initial query Coal Tracker, updated with data from MOIT 2019 Report 58/BC-CBT, updated using press releases, updated from PDP 7A Gas turbines Source : updated with ...
*
List of conventional hydroelectric power stations This article lists hydroelectric power stations that generate power using the conventional dammed method. This list includes power stations that are larger than in maximum net capacity, and are operational or under construction. Those power sta ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoa Binh Dam Hydroelectric power stations in Vietnam Buildings and structures in Hòa Bình province Dams completed in 1994 Energy infrastructure completed in 1994 Dams on the Black River (Asia) Dams in Vietnam Soviet Union–Vietnam relations Soviet foreign aid