Proposing a two-component electricity price mechanism, piloting first with some customers

Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) has just sent a report to the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposing a two-component electricity price mechanism.

The two-component electricity price is understood as the price structure to be paid for the registered capacity and the part to be paid for the consumed electricity. This is the difference compared to the current price mechanism which is the selling price according to a component of consumed electricity, that is, calculated according to the actual amount of electricity used.

To carry out the research on two-component electricity prices, EVN signed a contract with a consulting unit to develop a project "Research and develop a roadmap for applying two-component electricity prices (capacity price, electricity price) for production and business customer groups".

The project sets out two main objectives, including researching, calculating, building and proposing a two-component retail electricity price structure system for customers based on the existing database system and implemented forecasts of the Vietnamese electricity system.

Along with that, research and propose a roadmap for applying two-component electricity tariffs for different customer groups: from trial application to official application on a pilot scale and expanded scale to gradually replace single-component electricity tariffs in the current retail electricity tariff structure, ensuring compliance with the technical infrastructure conditions of the electricity industry, legal issues as well as the level of adaptation to the new tariff by consumers.

Based on the calculations of the consulting unit, EVN proposed a basic plan - a price system that purely reflects the cost of electricity supply and takes into account the electricity consumption characteristics of customer groups.

Customers will be classified into groups including non-domestic customers; residential customers with output up to 2,000kWh/month; customers with output over 2,000kWh/month; classified by voltage level including 4 levels: super high voltage, high voltage, medium voltage and low voltage.

For non-residential customers, there will be a common two-component electricity price list in the form of capacity price (VND/kW) and peak and off-peak electricity price (VND/kWh). These are three groups including production, business and administrative services in the current price system.

Household customers have a large scale and consumption output of 2,000kWh/month, similar to non-household customers but consume at low voltage level. Statistics show that this group is up to 56,000 customers, equipping a two-component metering system is not possible in the immediate stage.

Therefore, in the first phase, it is not proposed to apply but it is possible to consider a two-component price plan in the way it is applied to households with output under 2,000kWh/month, that is, collecting a fixed price according to the package and the electricity price remains unchanged.

EVN staff check the operation of electrical equipment

For customers with low consumption output (less than 2,000kWh/month): the two-component household price list will include a fixed price according to consumption scale and a flat electricity price (at 1,598 VND/kWh).

Because this group has a large number of customers, the group of customers consuming less than 50kWh/month is still receiving support from the Government . Therefore, the consumption scale to calculate the fixed price is being built according to the current ladder form.

Based on the proposal, the consulting unit proposes an implementation roadmap, including a trial application phase; a transition phase: official pilot application with selected customers; and an official application phase: replacing the entire current retail electricity price system.

During the pilot phase, real-time data will be used in parallel with the application of the current retail electricity price list to calculate electricity bills until the end of 2024 for normal production customers.

After the trial period ends, the two-component price list is finalized, the legal framework and other related conditions are fully prepared, and the pilot will be officially applied to all customers to replace the current electricity price list. Other customer groups will continue to apply the current price list.

The ideal scenario would be to roll out to all customers from 1/1/2025, if the proposed testing phase is implemented and completed as planned.

TH (according to VNA)

Source: https://baohaiduong.vn/de-xuat-co-che-gia-dien-hai-thanh-phan-thi-diem-truoc-voi-mot-so-khach-hang-397321.html