July 9 (Bloomberg) — Vietnam National Coal-Mineral Industries Group started construction yesterday of the 440- megawatt Mao Khe thermal plant in the northern coal-mining province of Quang Ninh to ease the country’s power shortage.

The plant, 165 kilometers (103 miles) northeast of Hanoi, is expected to start generating power in 2012 with annual output of about 2.6 billion kilowatt-hours, the government said in a statement posted on its Web site yesterday.

The development of the $577 million plant, two years behind schedule, will help Vietnam ensure energy security, the statement cited Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai as saying.

State-owned Vietnam National Coal awarded China’s Wuhan Kaidi Electric Power Co. a $429.5 million engineering and construction contract for the plant this month.