MHI has received a full-turnkey order from Electricity of Vietnam (EVN), Vietnam's public electricity corporation headquartered in Hanoi, for the construction of O Mon Thermal Power Plant. The plant will have the capacity to generate 330MW of electricity, with operation scheduled to commence in February 2009.

The new plant will be constructed at a site approximately 20kilometers upstream of the Mekong River from Can Tho City, the largest city in Mekong Delta region in the southern Vietnam and located approximately 170kilometers southwest of Ho Chi Minh City. In the initial stage, the O Mon power plant will generate electricity by using oil as its fuel. Later, natural gas also will be used as a fuel after the construction of the southwest gas pipeline system completed.

Based on the full-turnkey contract, MHI will manufacture and install major power generation equipment, including a boiler and steam turbine. The company also will conduct test operation of the power plant. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation will build the generator. Toa Corporation of Japan will perform the civil work, including riverbank enforcement and improvement of the plant site soil.

In Vietnam, the demand for electric power has risen sharply with recent economic development and is expected to remain high. In Mekong Delta region, where the plant is to be built, electricity supply falls behind the demand, including electric power for agricultural use. In order to improve electricity supply situation, construction of power generation facility there has been urgently required. For the plant construction funds, Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) is expected to furnish yen credit as a pillar of project to modernize Mekong Delta region.

The construction of O Mon Thermal Power Plant is the first order to MHI from Vietnam in eight years. In 1998, the company received the order for Phu My Thermal (gas-turbine combined-cycle) Power Plant (Phu My 1). With the construction of O Mon Thermal Power Plant Unit No.2 being planned, MHI will further strengthen its power plant marketing activities to Vietnam, where electricity demand is very vigorous.