Deputy Prime Minister Le Van Thanh  issued his statement on October 5 about mobilizing electricity that still has no pricing mechanism in Phuoc Minh commune, Thuan Nam district in Ninh Thuan province.

When handling proposals, the ministry considers the building of power plants and transmission lines in the region; electricity contracts signed by parties; and the recognition of commercial operations by appropriate agencies to ensure that these issues are legally resolved.

In late August, the Electric Power Trading Company under the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) said that it would not mobilize electricity from the part of the 450MW Trung Nam Thuan Nam power plant that still has no pricing mechanism.

This means that 172.12 MW capacity has not been mobilized since September 1.

Answering questions at the Government’s September press conference, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai said that, in this case, the investor of Trung Nam had made a mistake. It had not yet completed a dossier on official acceptance of work as required by law, and that EVN had mobilized electricity for the national grid. 

According to Hai, MOIT held a meeting with representatives from EVN and Trung Nam, stating that the mobilization of electricity and trading of electricity between the two enterprises is to be done by signed procurement contracts, taking into account the transmission capability of the network and additional demand at different times, to ensure strict compliance with the law. 

On September 2, Ninh Thuan authorities asked MOIT and EVN to continue mobilizing electricity belonging to the part of the project that still doesn’t have a pricing mechanism. The aim is to help the investor ease difficulties and ensure investment efficiency. However, MOIT and EVN have not replied.

On October 4, provincial authorities sent another document with the same proposal.

In Vietnam, Trung Nam is known as a pioneer in developing many renewable power projects.

Regarding the suggested lowest price, VND1,678/kwh for 0-100th kwh consumed instead of 0-50th kwh, Ha Dang Son, director of the Center for Energy Research and Green Growth said he still cannot count possible impacts because of the lack of latest statistics about the number of households using electricity.

Currently, the VND1,678 per kwh price is only applied to the clients using less than 50 kwh, while the ones using 51-100 kwh have to pay VND1,734/kwh. With the new scheme, the VND1,678/kwh price level would also be applied to the users of 51-100kwh. As such, those who use less electricity would get bigger benefits.

A report released in 2020 showed that less than 1 million households used 0-50 kwh, and 5 million households used 51-100kwh.

Son thinks that MOIT should provide more updated information when opening the designed electricity price systems for public opinion. Experts now still have to use the statistics released in 2020 to make suggestions.

Tran Chung