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A wind power plant in Ninh Thuan Province |
Inspectors from the Ministry of Industry and Trade concluded that the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) union failed to promptly comply with the direction of the Ministry of Industry and Trade resulting in the delay in purchasing electricity from solar and wind power projects.
According to the inspection conclusion Inspector No. 4463/KL-TT issued on July 10 for transitional EIA-EIA projects - the investment is completed after the date of enjoying the preferential price - a feed-in tariff (FiT), the Ministry of Industry and Trade on January 7, 2023 issued Decision No. 21/QD-BCT and Official Letter No. 107/BCT-DTDL on the electricity generation price bracket for the transitional solar and wind power projects, the EVN assigned the Electricity Power Trading Company (EPTC) to send EPCT’s proposal of the negotiation method on January 12, 2023 in its Official Letter No. 163/ EVN-TTD.
However, EVN has not yet urged the EPTC to coordinate with investors of solar and wind power projects to negotiate an agreement for power purchase and sale contracts, and soon put them into operation. On March 9, 2023, EPTC issued the Official Letter No. 1790/EPTC-KDMD requesting investors to provide documents for electricity price negotiation, which is 2 months behind the time the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued the directive.
Furthermore, until April 26, 2023, the EVN issued Official Letter No. 2110/EVN-TTD+PC directing the EPTC to carry out the negotiation of temporary electricity prices for transitional solar and wind power projects. Thus, in the process of directing and operating, EVN has been slow to implement the provisions of Clause 2, Article 26 of Decree No. 137/2013/ND-CP when it has not yet agreed on the electricity generation price with the solar and wind power projects.
According to the Inspector's conclusion, transitional wind and solar power plant projects are those that have been completed and are being tested, but on March 30, 2023, EVN issued Official Dispatch No. 1515/EVN-KH directing extended the connection agreement. Moreover, the EPTC issued an official letter No. 3879/EPTC-KTCNTT on May 18, 2023 proposing investors of 85 projects to send an update to the test program for EPTC’s consideration.
As of June 1, 2023, only 28/85 projects have been reviewed and agreed on the program to run an update and test run. Nine projects have completed testing and been recognized for commercial operation.
As a result, EVN has been slow in directing, operating and urging its member units to coordinate with the investors of the solar and wind power projects to complete legal procedures to put the project into operation under the direction of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Noticeably, it has been reported that, when connected to the grid, solar and wind projects will overload the grid system at some point in time, leading to no purchase of electricity but the conclusions of the Ministry’s inspectors are contrary.
