Many experts believe that it is time to calculate the correct and adequate cost of electricity so that it has the least impact on people's lives and production and business activities.
According to Decision 05/2024 of the Prime Minister, the cost structure of electricity generation price includes items such as electricity generation cost, electricity transmission cost, and distribution cost. retail electricity and industry management support costs. These costs, together with commercial electricity output and standard profit, make up the average electricity price.
But in the past year, input fuel prices for electricity generation Prices of coal, oil, gas, etc. have all increased due to fluctuations in the global political and social situation, along with the impact of the El Nino phenomenon, causing the structure of electricity sources to fluctuate in an unfavorable direction. That is, cheap electricity sources such as hydropower have decreased, while expensive electricity sources such as coal and oil have increased.
Meanwhile, Vietnam's electricity demand is increasing rapidly, approximately 10 - 11%. Therefore, it is time for electricity prices to be calculated correctly and fully, and the price increase roadmap should have the least impact on people's lives, production and business activities... These are the issues discussed at the discussion "Electricity prices - Current situation and solutions" organized by the Government Electronic Information Portal on the afternoon of October 10, in Hanoi.
At the seminar, experts all affirmed that it was time to calculate the correct and full price of electricity. Because according to the published inspection data, the cost of electricity was 2,088 VND/kWh, while the average selling price was 1,953 VND/kWh. That means the cost of electricity was 135 VND/kWh higher than the average selling price.
"We have calculated all input factors according to the market. But we decided to set a lower output price, which caused losses in electricity production and business," said Mr. Nguyen Tien Thoa - Chairman of the Vietnam Valuation Association.
In addition, in recent times, the input fuel prices for electricity production have increased, causing fluctuations in the structure of electricity sources. Although electricity producers, distributors, and retailers have reduced costs, when the selling price of electricity is still lower than the production cost, the distribution cost will cause difficulties in electricity development.
Mr. Phan Chi Hieu - Standing Member of the National Assembly's Economic Committee commented: "In the efforts of distributors and producers to reduce electricity purchase prices, it affects electricity producers and in the long run, does not promote electricity producers, affects security and stability of electricity supply".
According to experts, to solve this situation, it is time for us to calculate the correct and adequate cost of electricity. Because the general principle of electricity price management is to ensure reasonable and valid compensation for production costs. When this is done, not only will losses for the electricity industry be reduced, but attracting investment to develop the power grid will also be more favorable.
"Because EVN is facing financial difficulties, private projects on purchasing electricity are also in debt and causing many difficulties for investors. And if we do not have appropriate moves to adjust electricity prices, it will cause difficulties for EVN in the story of paying investors who have invested money and operated the system," said Dr. Ha Dang Son - Director of the Center for Energy Research and Green Growth.
In fact, the current structure of electricity production and supply is that EVN factories can only meet about 30% of electricity demand. The rest are factories belonging to corporations such as PVN, TKV and domestic and foreign investors. Therefore, there needs to be a mechanism to adjust electricity prices to ensure correctness and sufficiency.
Mr. Nguyen The Huu - Deputy Director of the Electricity Regulatory Authority, Ministry of Industry and Trade informed: "The Ministry of Industry and Trade has submitted to the Government and the Prime Minister to issue Decision No. 05 on "Mechanism for adjusting average electricity prices". It stipulates the mechanism for adjusting prices up, down, up, down and the adjustment period is 3 months. This creates conditions for adjusting electricity prices to approach changes in input factors, closely reflecting cost fluctuations".
On October 10, the Ministry of Industry and Trade announced the results of an inspection of the electricity production and business costs of Vietnam Electricity Group. Accordingly, due to the cost of electricity production still being higher than the average retail price, in 2023, EVN will lose nearly VND 22,000 billion from electricity production and business.
Also at the seminar, experts all said that if we continue to maintain low electricity prices, the consequence will be that we will not attract investment in the electricity industry. At the same time, there is no incentive for businesses to use energy economically and change technology.
In addition, it is necessary to quickly amend the electricity price policy mechanism in the Electricity Law. Ensure that the principles of price management parameters, price management procedures, etc. must be very coherent and transparent.
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