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One of the main strategic targets in the national power development plan of Vietnam is to give priority to hydropower. However, there is evidence that the most “at risk” in Vietnamese society have, to date, broadly failed to benefit from hydropower development but rather have become more vulnerable. This paper aims to broaden the perspective of decision makers (government agencies, investors and banks) in the hydropower industry regarding the environmental and social impacts of unrestrained development and the critical need to not only reduce disaster risk for communities but also provide a sustainable model for Vietnam’s energy demand.

This position paper presents a critique of public policy in Vietnam related to hydropower industry, undertaken alongside an analysis of socio-economic community resilience and disaster risk reduction literature.

Small hydropower investment must be delayed until measures are put in place to ensure that multi-stakeholder risk is a central component of the investment dialogue. Current pricing policies are not aligned with the hydropower development management, and this erects barriers to environmentally and socially conscious decision-making.

This paper suggests that the development of small hydropower projects must be curtailed until new measures are put in place. This has practical implications for investors, policy makers and residents of affected areas. The authors argue for a significant shift in government strategy toward building resilience as opposed to growth and profit at any cost.

Conscious of Vietnam’s energy demands and development goals, this paper investigates the context of increasing disaster risk and ecological pressures, as well as social injustice relating to the hydropower industry. This kind of analysis can support future efforts to reduce disaster risk and the vulnerability of marginalized groups in Vietnam.

The authors present a comprehensive review of Vietnamese hydropower from a disaster resilience perspective and provide analysis that will be useful in further research in this emerging area.

This study aims to investigate the effects of thermal–hydro interconnection on the revenues, market value and curtailment of variable renewable energy (VRE). The increasing market shares of VRE sources in the Northern European power system cause declining revenues for VRE producers, because of the merit-order effect. A sparsely studied flexibility measure for mitigating the drop in the VRE market value is increased interconnection between thermal- and hydropower-dominated regions.

A comprehensive partial equilibrium model with a high spatial and temporal resolution is applied for the analysis.

Model simulation results for 2030 show that thermal–hydro interconnection will cause exchange patterns that to a larger extent follow VRE production patterns, causing significantly reduced VRE curtailment. Wind value factors are found to decrease in the hydropower-dominated regions and increase in thermal power-dominated regions. Because of increased average electricity prices in most regions, the revenues are, however, found to increase for all VRE technologies. By only assuming the planned increases in transmission capacity, total VRE revenues are found to increase by 3.3 per cent and VRE electricity generation increases by 3.7 TWh.

The current study is, to the authors' knowledge, the first to analyze the effect of interconnection between thermal- and hydropower-dominated regions on the VRE market value, and the authors conclude that this is a promising flexibility measure for mitigating the value-drop of VRE caused by the merit-order effect. The study results demonstrate the importance of taking the whole power system into consideration when planning future transmission capacity expansions.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse social and environmental sustainability considerations developed in Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and to identify problems and challenges related to sustainable hydropower planning and development.

The paper is leaning on empirical analysis based on analysing primary and secondary data and information; official government documents and relevant literature, a series of workshops of the Future Resource and Economy Policies in Laos till 2020 Project (FREPLA2020), and interviews with government officials and experts.

To achieve its socio‐economic objectives, Lao PDR needs to manage its hydropower development to ensure environmental and social sustainability through developing of the legal, institutional and regulatory environment and strengthening of the institutional capacity of the sector, improving knowledge and data management, and developing institutional coordination across the government agencies.

The paper suggests that the Lao government assesses strategically the hydropower development options, prepares capacity building plans, develops risk assessment and management, and learns from past hydropower developments.

The paper recommends using hydropower development generated revenues to poverty reduction activities and to strengthen participatory approaches.

The paper can act as a discussion awakener, to help and give some guidance to decision makers and actors in the hydropower sector to integrate sustainable development considerations into hydropower development and planning.

Purpose – We seek explanation for the existence of international activity in industries whose characteristics provide conflicting rationales for international expansion. In such industries, the competitive value of some industrial characteristics is magnified by international expansion, whereas the value of others is undermined by these moves. The tension is amplified in the presence of sustainability concerns and the quest for meeting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) goals.Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on case studies of the world's largest multinational enterprise (MNE) producers of hydropower plant equipment, which provide representative examples of MNEs in renewable energy industries. We examine the strategic balances that these MNEs strike to deal with the conflicting pressure of international strategy and their performance outcomes.Findings – The insights we generate from the case studies suggest that there might be plural ways to successfully address such tensions, and firms’ histories and competitive advantages shape the choices they make in the face of these conflicts.Implications – Our contribution is of notable merits in the contemporary world whereby the pressure for international expansion extends to industries whose characteristics both favour and inhibit international activity. We outline the distinctive impact that sustainability concerns have in this tension.Originality/value of chapter – Our study serves to deepen the understanding of international activity in the renewable energy sector, a relatively understudied sector, whose significance in the world economy and in international business is growing rapidly. It is novel in extending the tension of international activity to include sustainability and CSR concerns.

The main purpose of this chapter is to show the correlation of the current consolidated electricity capacity of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) with the forecast indicators of electricity consumption to optimize the future energy system. It highlights the main directions of the international cooperation development in the field of hydropower and analyzes the total consumption of hydropower in the EAEU. The study is based on official data provided by international hydropower and renewable energy regulators as well as national professional regulators and statistical offices. Authors predicted total hydropower consumption of the EAEU countries for the coming years using machine learning algorithms and interpreted obtained results by an econometric toolkit. It is shown that the current hydropower capacity level will not cover future consumption, in particular, due to the increasingly growing demand for cheap electricity because of massive digitalization as one of the global pandemic impacts. As a result, the necessity was identified to gradually increasing the available hydropower capacity to balance the situation. In conclusion, it's been proposed potentially possible solutions to optimize the future energy system of the single energy market of the EAEU to achieve the required level of electricity generation from power plants operating on renewable energy sources and, in particular, water resources, taking into account the consequences of Covid-19 in the energy industry.

Management science, operational and financial risk of overseas enterprises.

This case is mainly applicable to international business course and project management course.

Since 1992, the Great Mekong sub-regional economic cooperation between China and ASEAN countries was officially launched and set free economic zone. Hydropower is starting to develop in recent years in Cambodia, and it is a good significance to Cambodia's industry. Furthermore, most of hydropower plants in Cambodia are built by Chinese companies. Thus, this paper will analyze the current risk and condition of Kamchay hydropower, as well as the development of Chinese enterprise for Cambodia economic and social development.

This case study provides students concepts on international business, project management, and operational risk of overseas enterprises. The principle of project contracting, labor cooperation, and project financial in international process are considered together with the implications they have for advancing understanding of the problem of the host country's government interests and the various risk of enterprises in international BOT projects.

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This paper aims to investigate, with the view to determine the effectiveness of blueprints that are designed to boost hydroelectricity use, the unit root properties of hydroelectricity consumption in 50 countries for the period from 1965 to 2012.

A newly proposed non-linear unit root test is used for the purpose of estimations.

The results show that 26 countries (which are mostly developing countries) or 52 per cent of the total sample have unit roots in their hydroelectricity consumption series.

The policy implication of these results is that policies associated with the enhancement of hydroelectric power use are likely to be effective in several cases, especially in the developing countries.

The main contribution of this paper is that we estimate the non-stationarity of hydroelectricity series within a non-linearity framework. Failure to use a non-linearity method in the presence of non-linear data-generation processes will create biased inferences and wrong policy implications.

Tanzania is rich in small hydropower (SHP) potentials. However, many of these potentials have yet to be fully used, and more than two-thirds of its rural population lacks access to electricity. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of SHP stations in improving rural welfare in the southern highlands of Tanzania. It further explores the history, cost-effective analysis and threats to the sustainability of SHP as one of the renewable energy sources.

The study uses a qualitative research design to explore respondents’ views on the role of SHP stations in facilitating rural electrification and welfare improvement. Primary data were gathered using semi-structured interviews with the 27 key informants and beneficiaries of SHP stations from the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. In addition, the study used documentary research to complement the information from the field survey.

The findings found that SHP stations enhance rural electrification and welfare by providing electricity in remote areas with sparse populations. They operate as standalone off-grids, often by church communities and individuals. However, the sustainability of SHP stations is hampered by challenges such as climate change impacts, high capital investment costs, heavy siltation of small reservoirs, skilled manpower shortages, limited local manufacturing capabilities and infrastructural issues.

The study contributes to the ongoing debate on renewable energy supply and uses, focusing on how SHP stations could contribute to sustainable rural electrification and achieve the 2030 United Nations agenda for sustainable development, which, among other things, aims to safeguard access to sustainable and modern energy and alleviate energy poverty.