Up to 13 foreign investors and 15 domestic enterprises investing in solar power have officially petitioned regarding the story of commercial operation without a written acceptance approval, because they are worried that they will no longer enjoy the initial electricity price.
Up to 13 foreign investors and 15 domestic enterprises investing in solar power have officially petitioned regarding the story of commercial operation without a written acceptance approval, because they are worried that they will no longer enjoy the initial electricity price.
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| Many solar power plants are worried about not getting the initial electricity price. |
Commercial operation but no acceptance approval yet
The petitions of the enterprises mainly focused on the fact that they had been recognized as having a commercial operation date (COD) and were selling electricity at the electricity price according to Decision 17/2019/QD-TTg (FIT1 price) and Decision 13/2020/QD-TTG (FIT2 price), but there was no document approving the results of the inspection and acceptance by the competent authority (acceptance of acceptance) at the time of COD.
In the petition, the businesses said that, despite complying with the renewable energy regulations in effect at the time the plant was recognized as COD, since September 2023, many projects have had their payments delayed indefinitely or have only received partial payments under the power purchase agreements (PPAs) signed with EVN, without any clear legal basis other than being mentioned in Inspection Conclusion No. 1027/KL-TTCP.
The financial impact of this situation is not small, with a number of projects already facing default on debt obligations to domestic and international lending institutions.
It should be reiterated here that Conclusion No. 1027/KL-TTCP of the Government Inspectorate in April 2023 raised the story of renewable energy projects that have been recognized as COD and are enjoying FIT1, FIT2 prices, but have not yet met the legal requirements. Specifically, there is no document approving acceptance at the time of COD and enjoying FIT1, FIT2 prices.
Investors' recommendations
Confirm and enforce the initially approved COD date of affected projects.
Ensure that EVN fully performs its contractual obligations under signed PPAs with full and timely payment for affected projects, avoiding financial exhaustion for the projects.
Circular 10/2023/TT-BCT shall not be applied retroactively to projects that have COD before the effective date of this Circular.
The inspection conclusion also stated that this had caused damage to Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) - a 100% state-owned unit.
To remedy the consequences, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has proposed a plan for projects that are enjoying FIT prices and have violated the inspection conclusion because they do not fully meet the conditions for enjoying FIT prices, they will not enjoy preferential FIT prices, but must re-determine the electricity purchase price according to regulations. At the same time, the preferential FIT prices that have been enjoyed incorrectly will be recovered through offset payments for electricity purchases.
According to the report of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, there are 173 grid-connected solar and wind power plants/parts of grid-connected solar power plants facing this situation.
At the most recent meeting of the competent authority to remove difficulties for renewable energy projects on February 26, 2025, EVN mentioned the number of related projects and divided them into specific groups.
These are the groups that are enjoying FIT1 price and have acceptance before July 1, 2019 - the end date of FIT1 price; enjoying FIT2 price and have acceptance before January 1, 2021 - the end date of FIT2 price; enjoying FIT1 price but have acceptance during FIT2 price period and finally the group that is enjoying FIT1 or FIT2 price but has acceptance after December 31, 2020 - the last day to enjoy FIT2 price; there are even projects that have not yet had acceptance.
It is noteworthy that the number of factories enjoying electricity prices according to FIT1 and FIT2, but having acceptance dates after December 31, 2020 is not small, up to more than 90 projects out of 173 mentioned projects.
The fact that COD solar power plants will no longer enjoy the same electricity prices as they are currently enjoying is also causing businesses to panic.
The challenge of finding a way out
In a petition sent to many senior leaders, 13 foreign investors, 15 domestic enterprises and 1 association stated that acceptance of completed construction works by the Ministry of Industry and Trade or competent provincial authorities is not a prerequisite requirement to achieve COD at the time FIT1 and FIT2 take effect.
Specifically, according to Decision No. 39/2018/QD-TTg for wind power projects and Decision No. 13/2020/QD-TTg for solar power projects, the conditions for COD recognition include only 3 requirements: completing initial testing of the power plant and connection equipment; being granted a power operation license and agreeing on meter readings to start payment.
Even the regulations on electricity operation licenses at that time did not require a written acceptance as a condition for being granted an electricity operation license.
It was not until June 9, 2023 that Circular No. 10/2023/TT-BCT required a written acceptance before applying for an electricity operation license. Therefore, investors believe that retroactively applying this new requirement to projects that have achieved COD many years ago goes against the principle of non-retroactive application of Article 13, Investment Law No. 61/2020/QH14.
Investors also believe that any violation of acceptance according to construction law will only lead to administrative sanctions and requirements for remedial measures (if applicable), but will not change the fact that the project has met the COD conditions according to the regulations in effect at that time and has obtained COD approval from EVN.
“Under the signed PPAs, EVN is obliged to purchase electricity from these projects at the agreed FIT price from the COD date previously approved by EVN. The delay in payment raises serious concerns about EVN’s compliance with its commitments under these signed PPAs,” the petition stated.
Investment Newspaper once reported on this problem. In early 2022, EVN issued a document asking the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Industry and Trade for specific instructions to ensure the rights of the parties in the solar power project regarding the inspection of the acceptance work of the competent state management agency before putting the power projects into operation.
According to the provisions of the 2014 Construction Law and its amendments and supplements until 2022, energy projects from level III and below will have to undergo acceptance inspections according to regulations. Thus, solar power projects with a scale of less than 10 MW are level III, 10-30 MW are level II and over 30 MW are level I, all of which must have competent authorities conduct acceptance inspections.
However, some other legal documents at the time solar power projects came into operation did not have regulations on inspection of acceptance work by competent authorities such as Decision No. 11/2017/QD-TTg, Circular No. 16/2017/TT-BCT, Decision No. 13/2020/QD-TTg, Circular No. 18/2020/TT-BCT.
It is worth mentioning that Decree No. 15/2013/ND-CP allows investors to organize acceptance to put the project into use if the prescribed time limit has expired without receiving a document on the results of the acceptance inspection from the competent authority.
However, Decree No. 46/2015/ND-CP and Decree No. 06/2021/ND-CP no longer stipulate this content, limiting the initiative of investors in the process of acceptance and putting the project into use.
Talking to reporters, many electricity industry experts also said that other power sources that have been built for a long time do not face the same situation as solar power projects because, regardless of the year they go into operation, the electricity price is the same according to the PPA negotiated and signed with EVN.
In many solar power projects, due to the rush to enjoy the FIT1 or FIT2 prices regulated by the Government, many investors did not pay attention or did not know, did not have time to complete the acceptance and inspection work from the state management agency, so there were no documents at the stage of enjoying the preferential prices of FIT1 and FIT2.
It is worth noting that, although there are nearly 100 projects without acceptance approval, there are dozens of other projects with sufficient acceptance certificates. Therefore, if businesses do not have sufficient documents but still enjoy the old FIT1 and FIT2 prices, it will lead to the question "what is the benefit here" and it will be very difficult to answer.
This reality also shows that the story of solving difficulties for renewable energy projects will take time to be completely resolved without affecting investment attraction in the electricity industry.
Source: https://baodautu.vn/thach-thuc-giu-gia-ban-dien-tai-du-an-nang-luong-tai-tao-d251636.html
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