Voters reflect many shortcomings, what do electricity industry leaders say?

(Baonghean.vn) - Mr. Bang Hong Hien - Deputy Director of Nghe An Electricity Company (delegate of Quynh Luu district) explained some contents of interest to voters at the discussion session of the Provincial People's Council on the morning of December 19.

Delegate Bang Hong Hien - Deputy Director of Nghe An Electricity Company. Photo: Duc Anh

Return on investment capital for rural power grid assets

Delegate Bang Hong Hien said that during the period 2008-2015, the electricity sector received the rural power grid of 421/423 communes in Nghe An province, then carried out procedures to make the return.

The acceptance is carried out in four ways. Firstly, accepting the assets of REII and REII expansion - the project invested by the Provincial People's Committee and assigned to the Department of Industry and Trade for management, after completion and putting into use, it will be handed over to the electricity sector. The return of the REII and REII expansion grid is currently not in agreement between the Nghe An Provincial People's Committee and the electricity sector on the asset depreciation period: the Provincial People's Committee proposed a 20-year asset depreciation period, while the electricity sector's regulation is 10 years.

“At the end of November and the beginning of December, the electricity sector agreed with the provincial People's Committee to temporarily record capital repayment based on the 10-year asset depreciation calculation method while waiting for guidance documents from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Trade,” said Mr. Hien.

Also according to the Deputy Director of Nghe An Power Company, on December 10, the Northern Power Corporation recorded capital for Nghe An Power Company to pay the principal and interest of REII and REII expansion from 2014-2017 with a value of nearly 5,000 billion VND.

The second method mentioned by this delegate is to receive the grid assets of communes in the form of capital increase and decrease. Before 2010, nearly 300 communes received it in this form, which means increasing the capital of the electricity sector and reducing the capital of the locality. However, according to the spirit of Circular 06 at that time, these communes were not subject to the grid's repayment.

“Through the voters’ proposal, we have noted that voters still want to be reimbursed in these 300 communes with a total value of 150 billion VND. The Provincial People’s Committee sent a document to the Ministry of Industry and Trade in April 2017 but has not yet received an official response regarding the refund. The current spirit is that these communes are not subject to refund,” Mr. Hien affirmed.

Third, for the method of receiving assets in the form of borrowing, that is, the electricity sector borrows and returns them to the locality after the renovation is completed, currently including 20 communes of Yen Thanh district. In these cases, the electricity sector commits to return them to the locality after the renovation is completed.

The fourth method mentioned by Mr. Bang Hong Hien is receiving in the form of refund, currently including 81 communes and cooperatives with a remaining value of 28 billion VND.

“The electricity industry has been concerned for a long time, but according to Circulars 32 and 06, it is very difficult to re-establish records, because according to the spirit of the circular, the most important thing is the original records, but this cannot be done because the assets have been built for many years,” the Deputy Director of Nghe An Electricity Industry wondered.

Mr. Hien continued to explain: “We have not yet advised the Provincial People's Committee to widely deploy the construction of dossiers to carry out this refund, because recently 4 dossiers sent to the Northern Power Company were returned because they did not comply with the spirit of Circular 32. If we continue to do so, the dossiers will still not ensure the refund conditions.”

It is known that the electricity sector has reported this difficulty during the implementation process to the Provincial People's Committee, the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An, and in April 2017, the Provincial People's Committee sent a document to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance to resolve the problem in returning the rural power grid but has not received any response.

Regarding this issue, the delegate from Quynh Luu constituency proposed two solutions: first, change some contents of Circular 32 to ensure that it can be implemented with current practical resources; second, if not changed, it is necessary to provide more detailed instructions on issues to ensure that it can be implemented.

Provincial People's Council delegates at the discussion session in the hall. Photo: Duc Anh

Rural low voltage grid improvement

Also at the discussion session, Mr. Bang Hong Hien stated the reality that with 11,000 km of low-voltage lines and 920,000 customers, the pressure on Nghe An's electricity industry is very large, because the power grid system has been operating for many years without being renovated or upgraded.

With the volume of renovation being so large, while resources are limited, the electricity industry has recently renovated the rural low-voltage grid with the spirit of renovating the most unsafe and dangerous areas first, while other areas that can still operate continue to operate, waiting for the time to continue renovation.

Up to now, according to statistics of Nghe An Electricity Company, the electricity industry has completed the renovation of 4,604/11,000 km of power lines, and is building a program from now until 2020 to complete the renovation of the rural power grid.

“To complete the project, approximately 3,000 billion VND of capital is needed. Nghe An electricity sector alone has mobilized capital sources, but in the current difficult conditions of ODA, it is not excluded that the time will have to be extended by 1-2 years, completing the renovation of the rural power grid after 2020,” Mr. Hien frankly shared.

Regarding voters' petitions related to electricity bill collection, the electricity industry representative said that they have signed contracts with nearly 2,000 electricity service workers in communes to record meter readings, collect bills and pay electricity bills. However, the electricity industry admitted that there is still a situation where people gather after work to pay during rush hour, causing congestion in some places, and promised to accept and have solutions to fix the problem soon.

The Deputy Director of Nghe An Electricity Company also provided more information, along with direct collection and service teams, the electricity industry also deployed many different payment methods, signed contracts with many commercial banks such as Agribank, BIDV, Viettinbank, Vietcombank, ... to collect directly from bank accounts. In the near future, the electricity industry will sign contracts with post offices, with the hope that electricity bill collection will be implemented more conveniently for customers.

Electric pole in the middle of the road, whose responsibility is it?

The issue that many voters also petitioned about was related to the situation of many electric poles lying in the middle of the road after localities started building new rural areas, causing traffic safety, power grid safety, and affecting aesthetics.

According to Mr. Hien, for quite a long time, this has been a controversial issue, regarding who is responsible. At the same time, the leaders of the electricity industry also announced that since October 2017, it has been agreed that to solve the problem, there must be coordination between the electricity industry and the locality.

“Localities that need to expand roads that affect infrastructure need to notify the electricity industry to come down and develop a relocation plan to ensure safety. The electricity industry is responsible for developing plans, connection techniques, power cuts, relocation, providing materials, other accessories, etc. to carry out the relocation if it arises. Localities are responsible for coordinating, providing human resources to organize the implementation, arranging the site to relocate the power grid, digging foundations, etc.,” Mr. Bang Hong Hien emphasized.

Thu Giang