At the event, Deputy General Director Nguyen Xuan Nam of Vietnam Electricity (EVN) addressed recent consumer complaints about unusually high electricity bills. He stated that EVN had directed its power companies to conduct a thorough review of all affected customer accounts.
The investigation concluded that the surge was not due to billing errors but rather to an anomalous heatwave in early August. “The system’s output reached a record-breaking peak of over 1 billion kWh”, he explained. “We’ve never seen it that high before.”
According to EVN’s data, approximately 3.2 million of its 31.8 million residential customers (over 10 percent) saw their electricity consumption jump by more than 30 percent compared to July. Deputy General Director Nguyen Xuan Nam assured the public that the use of electronic meters precludes any possibility of manual interference or falsification of consumption data.
Also speaking at the roundtable, Deputy Director Trinh Quoc Vu of the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam (under the Ministry of Industry and Trade) shed light on significant, valid costs incurred by EVN that have not yet been fully factored into retail electricity prices. According to regulations, all of EVN’s legitimate input costs are supposed to be incorporated into the average retail price.
However, prices were not increased at all in 2022, and the two minor, incremental hikes in 2023 were insufficient to cover rising costs. By the end of 2023, EVN was shouldering an accumulated deficit of approximately VND50 trillion (US$1.97 billion).
This figure doesn’t even include an additional VND21.8 trillion ($858 million) in exchange rate differences that EVN owes to power generators due to currency fluctuations. This has created a significant gap between EVN’s revenue and its actual operating costs.
“Sooner or later, we must allow the enterprise to fully and accurately account for its costs in the electricity price, because EVN cannot absorb these losses indefinitely”, Deputy Director Trinh Quoc Vu stated emphatically.
Nguyen Tien Thoa, former Director of the Finance Ministry’s Price Management Department offered a nuanced perspective. He argued that in 2022-2023, the selling price of electricity was VND135-149/kWh below its actual cost, which naturally created a “negative cash flow difference”.
“This isn’t a ‘loss’ in the traditional sense, stemming from mismanagement”, he analyzed. “Rather, it’s a result of the electricity sector serving broader national development goals. The price has been temporarily suppressed and doesn’t yet reflect the full cost.” He stressed that these deferred costs must be gradually allocated into the price structure over time.
In a related development, the Ministry of Industry and Trade recently convened a meeting on a “two-component” electricity price. Minister Nguyen Hong Dien noted that this move is mandated by the Politburo’s Resolution 70-NQ/TW, which calls for a transparent and equitable electricity market. The ministry is now urgently drafting a government resolution on the matter, to be submitted by September 20.
According to the Electricity Regulatory Authority, the two-component price consists of a charge for registered capacity and a charge for actual energy consumed. This differs from the current single-component model, which is based solely on consumption.
The new methodology is designed to more accurately reflect the cost of service for different users and ensure that the electricity sector can fully recover its expenses, including infrastructure and generation costs.
Initially, EVN proposes applying this new price structure only to large industrial customers who consume over 200,000 kWh per month and connected at the 22kV level or higher. Extending the model to residential customers is not yet being considered, as it would require a complete overhaul of the current metering system.
Minister Nguyen Hong Dien affirmed that the two-component price will be officially implemented starting January 1, 2026, beginning with large-scale consumers. The Electricity Regulatory Authority and EVN will collaborate to develop the new price framework and build the necessary operating software, which is slated for completion by October 20.
International experience suggests that such transitions often face initial public resistance. However, in the long term, this pricing model is proven to reduce the risk of power shortages during peak hours and incentivize more efficient energy use.
Concluding the discussion on a note of caution, former Director Nguyen Tien Thoa reiterated the need for transparency. He acknowledged that EVN’s financial deficit figures are audited and official.
“However, we must decode the root causes of this deficit and explain them clearly to the public”, he warned. “Otherwise, it will be very difficult to achieve a social consensus. People will rightly ask why they hear nothing when the business is profitable, but are asked to bear the burden when it reports a loss.”
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