On April 12 in Hanoi, Minister of MOIT Nguyen Hong Dien chaired a conference to collect opinions on the content of Draft 2 of the Electricity Law (amended).
The conference was attended by members of the Drafting Committee including Mr. Le Sy Bay - Deputy Inspector General of the Government, representatives of the Central Propaganda Department, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, a number of ministries and agencies. Government officials; a number of associations and business representatives: Vietnam Electricity p (EVN); Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN); Vietnam Coal and Mineral Industries Group (VINACOMIN); a number of Departments of Industry and Trade and units under MOIT. This meeting aims to synthesize, receive, and explain comments on the Electricity Law Project (amended).
367 comments synthesized
Minister of MOIT Nguyen Hong Dien chairing the conference to collect opinions on the content of Draft 2 Electricity Law (amended).
Speaking at the Conference, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien - Head of the Drafting Committee of the Electricity Law (amended) emphasized: Ensuring the quality of the Law Project, especially new contents such as developing renewable energy electricity, new energy electricity; developing electricity trading directly between power generating units and large electricity users (towards using clean, green energy); At the same time, it is required to implement Resolution No. 55-NQ/TW dated February 11, 2020 of the Politburo on the orientation of Vietnam's National Energy Development Strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2045, on the basis of Based on the results of the meeting, the first Drafting Committee, MOIT organized the second meeting of the Drafting Committee of the Electricity Law Project (amended) to continue to receive and amend the Law Project.
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Electricity Dang Hoang An speaking at the conference.
EVN’s President and CEO Nguyen Anh Tuan contributing comments to the draft law
At the meeting, experts and members of the Drafting Committee provided comments on Draft 2 of the Electricity Law (amended), which focuses on 6 contents: Planning and investment in electricity development; developing renewable energy and new energy; DPPA mechanism; electricity price; issues of electricity purchase contracts and licensing of electricity activities; on electrical safety and hydroelectric reservoir dam safety.
6 major contents continue to be deployed
Accordingly, 6 major contents have been agreed upon by the Drafting Committee and will continue to be implemented in the coming time.
Firstly, regarding the Electricity Development Planning: New addition to the Implementation Plan of the Electricity Development Planning to specifically stipulate the preparation and submission for approval of the plan of the Electricity Development Planning and Government regulations. The Government regulates this content in detail to serve as a basis for implementing the approved planning.
Investing to build electricity projects requires for additional regulations: Assessment of conformity with planning; Regulations on additional adjustments to projects that are not included in the planning shall be made to make additional adjustments to the electricity development planning according to the Planning Law. Or a plan to implement electricity development planning, except for cases where planning adjustment procedures are not required, such as electricity production projects using residual heat from production lines or renewable energy sources to produce electricity for on-site consumption. At the same time, it is required not to sell electricity or connect to the national power system or low-voltage grid projects
Conference to collect opinions on the content of Draft 2 Electricity Law (amended)
Investment in construction of emergency power projects: New regulations on investment in construction of emergency power projects are added to solve pressing issues of ensuring power supply security (providing criteria for emergency power projects; authority of the Prime Minister to decide on the list and specific mechanisms to implement emergency power projects).
Regarding investor selection for power source and grid projects, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien emphasized: "This is the content of new regulations to specify subjects and cases of investor selection through bidding and without bidding on the basis of reviewing legal regulations on investment, PPP, bidding and supplementing a number of special cases (emergency, national security, and defense, replacing power project investors)".
Regarding handling of power source projects that are behind schedule: This is the content of the new regulations on handling of power source projects that are behind schedule in order to stipulate sanctions to bind the responsibilities of investors when implementing investment projects to build electrical projects behind schedule; responsibilities of local and central state management agencies to manage the progress of power projects; propose measures to handle power projects behind schedule and recover delayed projects in accordance with the Investment Law and the Land Law. These are the limitations and inadequacies that have been pointed out in the summary report on the implementation of the Electricity Law.
Secondly, about the content of developing new energy and renewable energy. This is a newly-supplemented content to institutionalize the Party's policies and guidelines and the Government's Resolution on renewable energy and new energy development.
Accordingly, on the policy of developing renewable energy and new energy: Promote the exploitation and use of new energy sources and renewable energy to generate electricity; have preferential policies for investment projects to develop power generation plants using new and renewable energy sources; priority is given to the development of renewable energy according to load needs and on the basis of exploiting and taking advantage of natural conditions in each area, on land, at sea and on islands to exploit sustainable resources in a reasonable manner. Based on the goal of developing renewable energy in each period in the electricity development plan, the Government decides specifically on incentive policies and encourages the development of renewable energy and new energy electricity.
Developing renewable energy: Encouraging investment in renewable energy sources combined with power storage. Renewable energy projects with new investments, expansions, and renovations are allowed to combine different types of renewable energy power sources to increase power generation output, but the power generation capacity in the national power system shall not exceed the approved capacity during the planning stage. Priority is given to the development of renewable energy projects in arid or difficult land areas to develop agriculture according to the assessment of the Provincial People's Committee.
Self-consumed, self-consumed renewable energy electricity: Regulations on self-consumed renewable energy power projects with capacity under the national electricity development planning or plan to implement the national electricity development planning are determined to be appropriate according to regulations. Self-consumed renewable energy power projects are linked to the national electricity system and have the right to generate or not generate surplus electricity (if any) into the national electricity system.
In case an organization or individual chooses to generate excess electricity output into the national electricity system, the State will record that electricity output at a price of zero Vietnamese Dong. Encourage organizations and individuals to combine self-consumed renewable energy with investment, installation, and operation of power storage systems to be proactive in power production and business activities and ensure stability for electrical systems. The Government regulates in detail the procedures for developing and accounting for surplus electricity output of self-consumed renewable energy power projects.
Development of offshore wind power: Regulations on authority to approve investment policies for offshore wind power projects; regulations on transfer issues of investors.
Thirdly, regarding the DPPA mechanism, the Draft Law provides detailed regulations on Forward Contracts: A form of contract in the form of purchase and sale through a contract between the electricity seller and the electricity buyer in the competitive electricity market; supplementing regulations on direct electricity trading between large electricity users and electricity generating units (Article 47, Draft 2) to ensure compliance with the Party and State's policies (in Resolution No. 55-NQ/TW dated February 11, 2020 of the Politburo and Decision No. 500/QD-TTg dated May 15, 2023 of the Prime Minister approving the National electricity development planning for the period 2021-2030, vision to 2050). Accordingly, regulations on cases of direct electricity trading between large electricity users and electricity generating units shall include Electricity trading through directly connected private lines; Buying and selling electricity through the national grid. At the same time, the Government assigned detailed regulations on this content.
Fourthly, regarding electricity prices, which is related to electricity price policy, the draft Law supplementing the content of electricity prices needs to ensure that it reflects the costs of electricity production and business activities of the power units and is implemented in public, transparent, equitable, and non-discrimination among electricity units; develop an appropriate electricity price mechanism in importing electricity to foreign countries.
Amending the content on Authority to regulate the price adjustment mechanism (retail electricity), whereby the Government, instead of the Prime Minister as currently, shall regulate the price adjustment mechanism; Amending and clarifying MOIT’s guidance on the method of establishing the average electricity generation price frame and the average electricity wholesale price frame. MOIT’s instructions on types of electricity prices/electricity price frames will be appropriate to the level of development of the electricity market, and so on.
Regarding electricity selling prices in rural, mountainous, border, and island areas: Amending regulations (compared to regulations in Clause 2, Article 62 of the current Law) in the direction of the Prime Minister’s regulating electricity selling prices in rural areas, mountainous areas, border areas, and island areas not yet connected to the national grid, being appropriate to the level of development of the electricity market.