Energy Conversion
The Prime Minister issued Decision No. 500/QD-TTg dated May 15 approving the Power Plan VIII, which strongly develops renewable energy sources for electricity production, reaching a rate of about 30.9-39.2% by 2030 and up to 67.5-71.5% by 2050. Recent support mechanisms and policies have created a breakthrough in the development of renewable energy.
According to experts, Vietnam's energy development strategy identifies ensuring national energy security, including enhancing energy independence, prioritizing the development of domestic energy sources, and limiting dependence on imported energy sources as the top goal, in order to minimize risks from vulnerable imported energy supply lines and volatile prices.
Developing renewable energy, combined with energy saving and efficiency, has become the leading advantage of Vietnam's energy transition.
From a negligible capacity in 2018, up to now, the total capacity of power sources using renewable energy has accounted for about 30% of the total capacity of the national power system.
Assessing the Power Plan VIII, Dr. Tran Thanh Lien, Institute of Energy and Environment, said: This meets the sustainable goals and commitments of Vietnam to the international community. However, at the same time, we may also witness large fluctuations in the electricity price on the spot market, even forcing some renewable energy plants to stop generating electricity (like in the past), so we will have to prepare very carefully to manage the significant challenges of stabilizing the power system.
In 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Trade submitted a document to the Prime Minister on the development of a bidding mechanism for purchasing electricity from wind and solar power projects. The subjects participating in the bidding are wind and solar power projects that have been and are being invested in, but have not been put into operation within the time limit prescribed in Decision 39/2018/QD-TTg and Decision 13/2020/QD-TTg.
However, the bidding for electricity prices to select investors for renewable energy projects is stuck due to the lack of legal basis for implementation. Because according to the provisions of the Investment Law, the Price Law and the Electricity Law, it is impossible to conduct bidding to select investors with the competitive electricity price criterion as the winning price criterion.
Therefore, Dr. Tran Thanh Lien proposed to supplement/amend regulations on some specific criteria for selecting renewable energy investors and purchasing high-energy efficiency equipment such as: competitive electricity price criteria, energy efficiency criteria during the life cycle of equipment (replacing the lowest energy equipment price criterion) in the Electricity Law and the system of laws and documents under other related laws.
Research on electric energy storage technology
The uncertainty of renewable energy requires a constant backup source. According to Dr. Tran Thanh Lien, energy storage technology (storage batteries, pumped storage hydropower) is the most effective solution for operating renewable energy power plants and power systems. However, due to the high cost of storage batteries, pilot projects are only developed/implemented on a small scale.
Power Plan VIII plans to develop a battery storage capacity of 300 MW and pumped storage hydropower of 2,400 MW by 2030. To maximize and effectively operate renewable energy sources/power systems and develop the application of electricity storage technology on a large scale in the future (the cost of energy storage technology in the world tends to decrease), Mr. Lien proposed to study and supplement the electricity purchase/sale price for electricity storage technology as a basis to promote and encourage businesses to invest and develop this type.
Dr. Le Hai Hung, University of Science and Technology, emphasized: The nature of electricity storage technology is to store excess electricity (off-peak hours) and re-distribute it during peak hours. Only by storing electricity can humanity completely eliminate all forms of electricity generation using fossil fuels in the future.
There are many types of electricity storage, but currently, the two commonly used technologies are pumped hydropower and electrochemical technology (electricity storage using batteries).
Pumped storage hydropower technology essentially uses excess solar energy to pump water to a reservoir above ground and releases the water to spin a turbine to generate electricity during peak hours. This technology accounts for about 90% of the world's total stored electricity.
In Vietnam, in 2022, we started construction of the Bac Ai pumped storage hydropower plant (Ninh Thuan) with a total capacity of 1,200 MW, with a total cost of 21,000 billion VND and will generate electricity in 2029. Mr. Hung hopes that when this plant is in operation, it will be able to utilize most of the excess electricity from a number of solar power plants in Ninh Thuan.
“However, storage technology is called technology for the rich because it is very expensive. People also calculate that when applying storage technology, the price of solar power will increase many times compared to the present, leading to an increase in electricity prices. Perhaps that is why, in the Power Plan VIII, we have set a very modest target that by 2030, pumped storage hydropower will account for 1.6%, corresponding to 2,400MW, and battery storage will account for 0.2%, corresponding to 300MW,” Dr. Le Hai Hung shared.
Luong Bang
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