Son La Hydropower Company is currently managing and operating two large hydroelectric plants located in Son La and Lai Chau provinces, these are two multi-purpose projects that are important to national security. family. Not to be passive or surprised by natural disasters, every year, the Company has developed plans and proactively prepared plans to respond in order to minimize damage caused by natural disasters.
Son La Hydroelectricity and Lai Chau Hydroelectricity are watershed works in the hydroelectric cascade system on the upstream of the Da River. Son La Hydropower has a reservoir capacity of 9.26 billion m³ of water and Lai Chau Hydropower has a reservoir capacity of 1,215 billion m³ of water. Each year, the two plants supply about 12 billion kWh to the national grid, accounting for about 7% of the total output of the national electricity system. Especially regulating water for downstream areas.
Mr. Khuong The Anh, Director of Son La Hydropower Company, said: The hydroelectric projects managed and operated by the Company have dams with a height of over 100m, which are the largest dams in the world, equipment and equipment. construction monitoring technology is modern and has a high degree of automation. The control and assessment of construction safety is carried out automatically from equipment installed in the works, reservoirs, with about 2,500 sensors installed in 2 projects Son La and Lai Chau, connected to Central data collection center. In addition, periodically, the Company organizes monitoring of focal works, flood discharge works before and during the rainy and stormy season, such as inspection and visual monitoring of key works (current status of seepage, leakage, transfer location, signs of construction defects).
Located inside the dam body, the main monitoring devices are installed to assess the safety parameters for the project, such as: displacement, permeability, temperature, seismic. In addition, for the network of seismic monitoring stations, the Son La hydroelectric project is installed with 11 stations at different heights. Outside the building, the factory installs the Leica TM50 automatic total station system imported from Switzerland. This machine system has high accuracy, technical parameters are connected, collected and sent to the monitoring data room to synchronize data. The parameters are checked and controlled continuously, daily, hourly about the current status and operating status of the dam. At the same time, combined with monitoring devices in the dam body to comprehensively assess the current state of safety of the works.
Before the annual rainy and flood season, the Company has carried out major repair and maintenance of the system of flood discharge valves, spillways, hydraulic mechanical equipment for water intake gates according to regulations of Vietnam Electricity Group. Organization of lifting operation, testing, opening and closing the discharge door under the conditions of using both normal and backup power sources, automatic operation or manual operation to ensure the discharge gates works well. Construction supervision is regularly controlled by visual and preset equipment system through automatic data collection system (ADAS) and Vista Data Vision software of Iceland. Through the inspection and evaluation of the Scientific and Technological Advisory Council to assess the safety of dams and reservoirs on the Da river hydropower ladder, the works are in a stable, safe state, ready to meet all conditions. participate in flood control and water storage in 2021. From May 1, 2021, the Company organizes a 24-hour emergency response, including the Steering Committee, the Company’s disaster prevention and rescue teams.
Safety for the downstream area of hydropower is focused. At Son La Hydropower Plant, 14 warning stations have been built with loudspeakers and signs, located within a radius of 25 km downstream of the Plant, ensuring safety. promptly provide information on the mode of engine operation and flood discharge to communes and villages in the area. Before releasing the flood, whistle as prescribed, and at the same time send officials to inform, propagate, guide and warn people in downstream areas.
Ta Bu commune (Muong La) is the downstream area right behind the dam of Son La Hydropower Plant with 8/12 villages located along the Da River. Mr. Lo Van Step, Chairman of the Commune People’s Committee, said: In the villages located along the Da River, Son La Hydropower Company has installed warning loudspeakers and warning signs of danger of sudden changes in water flow. in residential areas. The commune also actively cooperates with the Company to propagate prohibited acts in the protection corridor of the reservoir and lakebed, the corridor for protection of water sources, warning signs system, warning loudspeakers; plans for disaster prevention of hydroelectric projects and safe use of electricity for people in the commune.
With the unpredictable changes of the weather like today, Son La Hydropower Company is always ready to respond to natural disasters, taking all effective measures to handle situations; comply with the prescribed procedures in inspection, management and operation, ensure safety, contribute to limiting floods for downstream and perform well the tasks of production and business.