The power sector has ensured great balances in service of the national economic development

At the conference on reviewing the performance in 2020 and preparing for duties in 2021 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, taking place on January 7, 2021, leaders of the Government and the Ministry of Industry and Trade confirmed that the power sector had well ensured great balances serving the country's socio-economic development, national defense and security and people's daily life.

According to the report of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam's getting electricity index has made a great progress, ranking from 156^th among 189 countries and territories (in 2013) to 27^th among 190 and 4^th in ASEAN region in 2019.

The competitive electricity market has been actively deployed, meeting the Government's roadmap, thereby creating a fair competitive environment in investment in and development of power generation and power distribution sub-sectors, ensuring the pricing of electricity wholesaling in line with the market mechanism, properly reflecting fluctuations in input costs as well as the law of supply and demand.

In 2020, the total electricity output produced and imported for the whole year is estimated at nearly 237,561 billion kWh, an increase of 3.43% compared to 2019. For the period of 2016 - 2020, the total electricity production and import is estimated at 1,049.3 billion kWh, an average annual growth rate of 8% over the period.

In 2020, renewable energy accounts for a high proportion in the power system of Vietnam – Photo: Ngoc Tuan

The widely deployed smart grid development program has improved the power quality, the reliability of the power supply is getting better and better, the power loss rate caused by transmission and distribution has decreased from 7.94% in 2015 to approximately 6.5% in 2020.

As of the end of 2020, the total installed capacity of the power system had reached 69,000 MW, an increase of 13,700 MW compared to 2019, of which the total capacity of renewable energy sources (RE) was 16,500 MW, accounting for 25 %.

The overloading situation of power grids due to the penetration of RE sources has basically been resolved, when power grid projects in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan provinces have been completed and put into operation (such as Phan Ri, Ninh Phuoc 220 kV substations, the second circuit of Thap Cham - Tuy Phong - Phan Ri 110 kV transmission line, etc.), especially Thuan Nam 500 kV substation and 500 kV, 220 kV connection lines.

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc affirmed: "In the next 5 years, with this growth momentum, given our ability to develop power generation projects, we will not be short of electricity".