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Son La Hydropower Plant with a capacity of 2,400 MW, located in It Ong commune (Muong La district, Son La province), was started construction in 2005 and completed in 2012 – 3 years ahead of the Resolution set forth by the National Assembly.
Hydroelectricity has a concrete dam 961m long, 138m high, 102m wide, blocking the Da River to form a reservoir of 9.3 billion m3 of water. The project has a total investment of about 60,000 billion VND, provides an average annual power output of more than 10 billion kWh, and is responsible for preventing floods in the rainy season and providing water in the dry season for the Northern Delta.
The concrete dam structure used the most modern roller compacted concrete technology at that time.
As the largest water reservoir, the reservoir of Son La hydropower plant, if the water is stored to the high level, the basin area of the lake will cover 43,760 km2 in the territory of three provinces of Son La, Dien Bien and Lai Chau.
Son La Hydroelectricity is the project with the most monitoring equipment, divided into 7 sections, 1,028 sensors with different tasks. In particular, 11 seismic devices are located at key locations to regularly check dam safety information.
The hydroelectric power plant is designed in an open style, arranged behind the dam body. The peak construction phase mobilized up to 13,000 people. To build the factory, more than 20,000 households in three provinces of Son La, Dien Bien and Lai Chau had to relocate.
The project has 12 deep discharge chambers, 6 surface discharge chambers.
6 units (6 groups x 400 MW) using vertical shaft turbines, wheel diameter of 8.5 m. The average annual electricity output is more than 10,246 billion kWh, of which the increase for Hoa Binh hydropower plant is 1,267 billion kWh.
In particular, Son La Hydropower Plant is a project completely designed and built by a team of Vietnamese engineers and workers directly. Foreign experts are invited to participate in a supervisory role.
In addition to the goal of providing an abundant power source for the national electricity grid, Son La Hydropower Plant also plays an important role in flood control and water supply for production in the Northern Delta, contributing to economic growth. , society, culture for the Northwest region.
The project also creates a waterway transportation system for the Northwest provinces thanks to Hoa Binh reservoir and Son La Hydroelectricity reservoir. Thereby creating favorable conditions for the development of the aquaculture industry, contributing to improving the climate for the sub-region along the reservoir area and opening up opportunities for ecotourism development.