Hanoi (VNS/VNA) — Power consumption increased significantly in Septemberas th🍬e economy started to find its feet after COVID-19 was successfullycontained in Vietnam, according to a recent report by Electricity of Vietnam (EVN).

The report on nine-monthpower production and consumption showed that EVN's commercial power output wasestimated at 19.93 billion kWh in September, representing a rise of 1.05 percentagainst August and 8.41 percent against the same period last year. Power for industrial productionand construction increased by 7.7 percent, while electricity for dailyconsumption was up 13.17 percent. Power for services and trade was down10.99 percent. The country is undergoingsocio-economic recovery after COVID-19 was successfullycontained, with no new community transmissions recorded for more than 50days. EVN’s total commercial poweroutput for January-September stood at 162.31 billion kWh, a rise of 3.09percent over the same period last year. From the beginning of thisyear, EVN produced and imported a total of 185.37 billion kWh, up by 2.68 percent. Of the figure, hydroelectricityplants provided 48.38 billion kWN, a drop of 6.93 percent, gas-fired powerplants were at 27.42 billion kWN, falling 16.56 percent, coal-firedpower plants accounted for 97.29 billion kWh, an increase of 10.5 percent,and oil-fired power produced 1.04 billion kWh, up 33 percent. Of note, EVN purchased 8.16billion kWh of renewable power in the first nine months of this year, of which7.23 billion kWh, or 88.6 percent, was generated by solar power projects. The nine-month solar powerbuyback was 2.6 times higher year-on-year. For rooftop solar power, morethan 55,980 projects were put into operation with a total capacity of1,531 MWp. In the last quarter of thisyear, EVN will focus on hastening the progress of power generation projects,including the Thuong Kon Tum hydropower plant and Se San 4 solar power projects. EVN also plans to startexpansions at Hoa Binh hydropower plant and Quang Trach 1thermoelectricity plant, and build infrastructure for the Dung Quat 1 and3 gas-fired plants. It has broken ground on 107power projects this year and put into operation 100 110-500kV transmissionlines./.