The Hòa Bình Dam on the
Black River () is the largest hydroelectric dam in
Vietnam
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
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 stu ...
), and one of the largest in Southeast Asia, with a generating capacity of .
The Sông Đà Reservoir, with a capacity of 9 billion m
3 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 (EVN; ) is the national and the sole public power company in Vietnam. It was established by the government of Vietnam as a state-owned company in 1994, and has operated officially as a one-member limited liability company s ...
and operated by the Hoa Binh Hydro Power Company.
Construction
In 1961, the
North Vietnam
North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; ; VNDCCH), was a country in Southeast Asia from 1945 to 1976, with sovereignty fully recognized in 1954 Geneva Conference, 1954. A member of the communist Eastern Bloc, it o ...
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 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
and Russian money and experts, construction on the
rockfill dam 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 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. When it was completed, it was the tallest earthen dam in the world, surpassing the Chatuge D ...
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.
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 can be used for generating electrical ...
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
Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For electric utility, utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its Electricity delivery, delivery (Electric power transm ...
, the dam helps to ensure the stability of the power grid, protects
Hanoi
Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...
and the
Red River Delta
The Red River Delta or Hong River Delta () 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 word for "red" or "crimson". T ...
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), colloquially known as Uncle Ho () among other aliases and sobriquets, was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician who served as the founder and first President of Vietnam, president of the ...
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
*
List of conventional hydroelectric power stations
This article lists hydroelectricity, hydroelectric power stations that generate power using the Hydroelectricity#Generating methods, conventional dammed method. This list includes power stations that are larger than in maximum net capacity, and a ...
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