On the afternoon of May 26, the Ministry of Industry and Trade released information about negotiations on transitional solar and wind power plants and the issue of importing electricity from abroad.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the national power system, especially the Northern power system, is currently in the peak of the dry season, operating in an extremely difficult situation, due to high system loads, poor water flow from hydropower plants, and difficulties in fuel for coal-fired thermal power plants.

Therefore, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has directed the Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) to increase the mobilization of available power sources to supplement the national power system, and urgently negotiate and mobilize renewable energy power plants to increase the capacity of the power system.

Electricity imports are carefully calculated. Illustration photo: Ministry of Industry and Trade

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, electricity import is a long-term strategy based on Vietnam's political and economic relations to ensure the country's long-term energy security and is determined in the national electricity development plan for each period.

"The import of electricity is carefully calculated with scenarios to ensure a small import proportion, ensure self-sufficiency, national energy security and be consistent with the conditions of political - economic - trade relations with countries in the region," the Ministry of Industry and Trade stated.

Only 18/85 renewable energy power plants have been licensed.

According to information from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, as of today (May 26), 52/85 transitional solar and wind power plants with a total capacity of 3,155 MW (accounting for 67%) have submitted documents to EVN to negotiate electricity prices.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade also said that it has approved temporary prices for 19 investors proposing to apply temporary prices during the negotiation period with a total capacity of 1,346.82 MW and currently, there are 17 more transitional power plants that EVN is completing procedures to submit to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for approval in May 2023.

Once these power projects fully meet regulations, these plants will be able to mobilize electricity to the national grid.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Industry and Trade cited the provisions of the Electricity Law stating that power projects must be granted electricity operation licenses before being put into operation. However, according to statistics, as of May 23, 2023, only 18/85 transitional renewable energy power plants (accounting for about 18.8%) have been granted electricity operation licenses.

For the 19 power plants that have agreed on temporary prices, 13 power plants have been granted electricity operation licenses, of which 12 power plants have been granted with full capacity according to the plan, and 1 new wind power plant has been granted a partial license.

However, there are up to 12 transitional projects that have submitted price negotiation documents but have not submitted licensing documents (including 11 wind power projects and 1 solar power project).

"From the above data on granted electricity operation licenses, it can be seen that the completion of legal documents for granting electricity operation licenses has not received due attention from investors, leading to delays in preparing and submitting documents to competent authorities," said the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

NGUYEN THAO