On August 19, the National Assembly Standing Committee continued its 36th session, giving opinions on the draft Electricity Law (amended), which is expected to be submitted to the National Assembly for the first time at the 8th session in October. One of the new points in the draft Electricity Law (amended) to be submitted to the National Assembly this time mentions the development of nuclear power.
The draft law stipulates that the State holds a monopoly on investment in nuclear power plant projects in addition to the monopoly on investment in multi-purpose hydropower plants and emergency power generation and grid projects; and power system load dispatching.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade - Truong Thanh Hoai reporting at the meeting
In reviewing this content, the Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment - Mr. Le Quang Huy said that the Standing Committee of the Committee believes that Vietnam has the potential to develop nuclear power and has made basic initial preparations in the past. In the context of the world returning to investing in and strongly developing nuclear power, the development of this energy source becomes very important.
On the other hand, nuclear power is considered an important option to ensure energy security and achieve the net zero goal by 2050, as committed by the Government.
However, the reviewing agency believes that the provisions on nuclear power in the draft law need to be carefully studied, and regulations and principles on nuclear power in this law should be clarified and studied with reference to the Atomic Energy Law.
In addition to nuclear power, the review agency proposed that the Government study and supplement incentive mechanisms to develop flexible power sources and energy storage sources to increase the integration of renewable energy into the power system at an increasingly high rate in line with the National Power Development Plan VIII.
There is a roadmap to eliminate cross-subsidy of electricity prices
Another content of the draft Electricity Law, according to Deputy Minister Truong Thanh Hoai, is relevant to Resolution No. 55 of the Politburo which provides a direction of eliminating cross-subsidy of electricity prices among customer groups and regions.
Therefore, it is necessary to supplement policy regulations on gradually reducing and eliminating cross-subsidy of electricity prices among customer groups that do not participate in the competitive retail electricity market (customers who are not eligible to participate or do not choose to participate in buying and selling electricity on the competitive retail electricity market), among regions in line with the development level of the electricity market. This is to apply an electricity price mechanism suitable for groups of electricity customers with high energy consumption.
Chairman of Committee for Science, Technology and Environment, Mr. Le Quang Huy reporting on preliminary review of Electricity Law (amended)
The drafting agency believes that, in addition to inheriting the principles in the Electricity Law 2004, this draft adds provisions in the direction that electricity prices reflect reasonable and valid production and business costs of electricity units and are implemented transparently, without discrimination among electricity units.
Reviewing this content, Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy commented that electricity prices are currently changing slowly, not in line with the market mechanism. Retail electricity prices do not fully reflect the costs from electricity production to consumption and have not given signals to attract investment in this industry, as well as the subjects participating in the electricity market. On the other hand, many power projects have not been invested properly, leading to not being put into use, causing great waste for society.
However, according to the reviewing agency, the content on cross-subsidy reduction of electricity prices has not been specifically stated in the draft law.
"The draft law also needs to regulate clear principles and roadmaps for eliminating cross-subsidies among customer groups, ensuring social equality, market principles, and encouraging electricity saving in the manufacturing industry," said Mr. Huy, adding that this amended law also needs to add regulations on two-component electricity prices, imported and exported electricity prices.
In addition, the draft amended law proposes that the Government will be the competent authority in issuing the mechanism for adjusting retail electricity prices instead of the Prime Minister as it is currently. Specifically, the Government will issue a decree on the mechanism for adjusting retail electricity prices, which specifically stipulates the authority for each price adjustment level.