It took 4 years since Decree 31/2021/ND-CP made offshore wind power an industry and profession with conditional market access for foreign investors for the Ministry of Industry and Trade to finalize specific conditions.
It took 4 years since Decree 31/2021/ND-CP made offshore wind power an industry and profession with conditional market access for foreign investors for the Ministry of Industry and Trade to finalize specific conditions.
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| Currently, there is only a price framework for onshore and nearshore wind power, but no price framework for offshore wind power. Photo : Duc Thanh |
Glad to have initial regulations
According to Decree 58/2025/ND-CP detailing the Electricity Law 2024 on the development of renewable energy and new energy, foreign investors when implementing, participating in investment implementation, participating in the selection of investors for offshore wind power projects must meet a number of conditions. In particular, the investor has previously invested in the development of at least one offshore wind power project through direct capital contribution or participation in project management, design, and construction.
To develop an offshore wind power project in Vietnam, foreign investors must have the participation of a domestic enterprise with a minimum participation of 5% of the charter capital. This domestic enterprise must be a 100% state-owned enterprise or have the participation of a state-owned enterprise accounting for more than 50% of the charter capital or the total number of voting shares.
For domestic enterprises, when participating in an offshore wind power project, they must also meet the condition of having previously participated in an offshore wind power project by contributing capital or project management, design, and construction.
Speaking to Investment Newspaper reporters, Mr. Bui Vinh Thang (Global Wind Power Association) said that the issuance of Decree 58/2025/ND-CP has made businesses happier, but they still have to wait to see how it will be implemented. For example, businesses have to wait for the Government to approve the List of offshore wind power projects to be included in the revised Power Plan VIII and this list must have the opinion of the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (formerly the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment) to see if it is consistent with the marine spatial planning or not.
In addition, it is necessary to issue a new Decree to replace Decree 11/2021/ND-CP regulating the assignment of certain sea areas to organizations and individuals for exploitation and use of marine resources to facilitate survey assignment.
Decree 58/2025/ND-CP stipulates that the condition for foreign enterprises to participate in offshore wind power is to form joint ventures with domestic enterprises. Therefore, it is possible to consider granting additional survey licenses to other enterprises so that after 2 years, there will be more data to calculate further for offshore wind power.
“Currently, there is only one wind power survey license granted to the Vietnam Oil and Gas Technical Services Corporation (PTSC) that is still valid. When there is more data, the bidding will be more favorable and other investors will have the opportunity to meet the target of granting investment certificates before January 1, 2031 to enjoy incentives in Decree 58/2025/ND-CP,” Mr. Bui Vinh Thang shared.
More regulations needed
Regarding incentives, “the minimum long-term contract electricity output is 80% within the loan principal repayment period, but not more than 15 years for projects selling electricity to the national power system”, energy consultant Phan Xuan Duong said that, thus, the investor also knows that 80% of the output has been purchased to calculate the financial plan and can estimate this based on wind data when preparing the Feasibility Study Report.
a) Projects whose investment policy has been decided or approved by competent authorities before January 1, 2031;
b) For projects supplying electricity to the national power system, the capacity must be at least 6,000 MW approved by competent authorities in the power development plan.
“With this regulation, investors can calculate cash flow, determine the cost of electricity production, and the electricity price they will offer. Of course, if Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) buys more than 80% of this committed output, investors will benefit even more in terms of revenue,” Mr. Duong shared.
However, Mr. Thang said that investors are also concerned that the remaining 20%, if sold at the spot price, could be very low, which would cause the final price to be pulled down a lot. Therefore, we have to wait and see what the ceiling price for offshore wind power issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade will be.
Currently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade only has a price framework for onshore and nearshore wind power, but no price framework for offshore wind power, and no projects in this field have been implemented to have data.
Another concern of investors is that some current regulations require bidding documents to be prepared in accordance with the law, which mentions a draft power purchase agreement (PPA) agreed with the power buyer - in this case, EVN. However, there is currently no detailed wind measurement data (usually takes 2 years to implement) to calculate the financial plan, and negotiating with EVN is difficult.
Article 29 of Decree 58/2025/ND-CP also stipulates that the ceiling price of electricity in the bidding documents shall not be higher than the maximum price of the electricity generation price frame for offshore wind power issued by the Minister of Industry and Trade in the bidding year; the winning electricity price for selecting investors is the maximum electricity price for the electricity buyer to negotiate with the winning investor.
Although the regulation states that "EVN is responsible for purchasing electricity at the request of the competent authority or the agency that decides to organize the bidding", investors are also worried that it will take time to issue the final PPA when looking at the actual negotiations of power source projects for a long time.
“Investors are also very interested in the model power purchase contract with EVN for offshore wind power. However, it is very difficult to have a contract that satisfies the investor, EVN and the lending financial institution. Meanwhile, offshore wind power projects often have high investment costs, so relying on domestic capital alone is not enough,” a financial expert shared.
Therefore, after Decree 58/2025/ND-CP, other related regulations need to be issued soon so that the implementation of offshore wind power projects can progress as quickly as expected by the authorities.
Source: https://baodautu.vn/dau-tu-dien-gio-ngoai-khoi-van-can-them-quy-dinh-d251476.html
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