Some typical works in the area that can be mentioned such as: Waste water treatment plant of Phu Dien Construction Investment and Trading Joint Stock Company (980kWp); Schneider Electric Manufacturing Vietnam Co., Ltd. (360kWp), Phu Tho Tourism Service Joint Stock Company (259.2kWp), etc.
Rooftop solar panels installed at Ho Chi Minh City Power Corporation’s headquarters
For HCMC Electricity Corporation (EVNHCMC) only, up to now, there have been 19 subordinate units completing installation of grid-connected solar power system at their headquarters, with a total capacity of 1,127.9kWp.
Currently, the Corporation has implemented installation at 47 intermediate substations, with a total estimated capacity of 2,658kWp, expected to be put into operation by the end of June 2019.
According to the World Bank's “Report on Technical Assessment of Rooftop Solar Energy Potential in Vietnam” in 2017, the potential of solar power in Ho Chi Minh City is estimated at about 6,300MW. Although the potential is great, there are still problems affecting the mobilization of customers to use solar power.
Particularly, the Power sector has currently not been able to sign any solar power trading agreement with customers because there has not been official guidance on how to make payment and settlement for customers; the cost price for installing 1kWp of solar power is still high, while there has been no policy to support loans for solar power projects and programs to support the cost of installing solar power for customers.
Not only that, currently on the market, there have been many enterprises supplying and installing solar power systems with hundreds of different trademarks and origins without any confirmation support from units and organizations, causing that customers flinch from installing solar power; there have been no technical standards for related equipment such as panel, support frames, inverter to limit poor quality products circulating in the market, etc.
In order to promote the implementation of the grid-connected solar power program in Ho Chi Minh City, EVNHCMC said that the ministries and agencies should soon guide how to settle the surplus solar power transmitted back up to the grid for rooftop grid-connected solar power projects; at the same time, put the installation of the rooftop solar power into a compulsory requirement for administrative and non-business agencies, beneficiaries of the state budget and make it to be a criterion for evaluating and ranking enterprises.
Additionally, the State should promulgate technical standards and unified procedures for connecting rooftop solar power for the whole country; promulgate regulations on cost for inspection and testing of grid connection technical requirements and a list of units that can perform this task in addition to the Power units, etc.
In particular, in order to encourage people, there should be financial support and preferential programs for units and households installing rooftop solar power, etc.