Clearly identifying challenges
Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien emphasized that Master Plan VIII is of a particular importance, opening up new development space for Vietnam's energy sector in a sustainable, equitable direction, consistent with the views and policies of the Party, the State and the country's actual capabilities. The Master Plan is also consistent with international trends of developing green economy, circular economy, low carbon economy, etc.
According to Dr. Ta Dinh Thi - Vice Chairman of the National Assembly's Science, Technology and Environment Committee, Master Plan VIII has been approved by the Prime Minister with many important goals, especially the achievement of CO2 neutrality by 2050. Issues of national energy security, just energy transition, reasonable generation mix, synchronous and modern power grids, regional grid interconnection, etc. have been carefully considered with comments contributed by experts and relevant organizations.
To implement Master Plan VIII, the budget requirement in the period 2021 - 2030 will be huge, around USD 12 billion/year for power sources and USD 1.5 billion/year for power grids – said Dr. Ta Dinh Thi.
Master Plan VIII is viewed prominent with many new points in the development approach. This is a dynamic and open master plan, ensuring adaptation and resilience, taking science and technology as the basis, taking cost optimization as the deciding factor; associated with a just energy transition roadmap; increasing calculation resolution, dividing the power system into 6 regions (the revised Master Plan VII divided the system into 3 regions), etc.
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What solutions?
The remaining time to realize Master Plan VIII is not long, the implementation of projects in the Master Plan is extremely urgent. Therefore, it is necessary to have specific mechanisms and policies to attract investment capital sources; Reviewing and amending a number of legal documents to remove obstacles in electricity development. In addition, it is necessary to consider legalizing electricity prices; putting into place a reasonable, long-term price framework to encourage renewable energy development; studying a comprehensive and transparent legal framework to promote the development of offshore wind power, energy storage systems, etc.
To achieve the total power capacity of about 150GW by 2030 and 490-573GW by 2050, great efforts will be needed from the entire political system, all resources should be mobilized to invest in power generation and grid development. In parallel, to achieve the goals in Master Plan VIII, it is necessary to further strongly reform Vietnam's electricity market, creating fairness and transparency in electricity market operations. At the same time, mechanisms, policies, processes and procedures in investment in electricity development should be completed in a prompt manner, creating trust of investors and enable investors to build their long-term strategies in Vietnam.
General goals of Master Plan VIII:
- Firmly ensuring national energy security, meeting the requirements of socio-economic development, industrialization and modernization of the country.
- Successfully implementing a just energy transition associated with modernizing production, building smart grids, and advanced power system management, consistent with world’s trend of green transformation, emission reduction, and technological development.
- Forming an overall energy industry ecosystem based on renewable energy and new energy.
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