Vietnam is expected to build a pumped-storage hydropower plant with total capacity of 1,500 megawatts in the country's northern mountainous province of Son La in 2013, the government website reported Thursday.
Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has given an in-principle approval to the construction of the plant, said the report.
The plant will be the first pumped-storage hydroelectric power station in the country and is designed to be an environmentally- friendly one, according to the report.
The pumped-storage hydroelectric power generation method stores energy in the form of water, pumped from a lower elevation reservoir to a higher one at times of low electrical demand. When there is higher demand, the stored water is released back into the lower reservoir through turbines, generating electricity.
The plant is expected to be operational in 2018, according to the report.
