The electricity industry needs to pay attention to thoroughly resolving voters' petitions.

"Hot" issue of electricity price increase

According to the report of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, regarding the electricity sector, there were 28 opinions and recommendations from voters sent to the Electricity sector from after the first session to the 6th session of the 14th National Assembly, mainly focusing on the following contents: Receiving, returning and upgrading the rural power grid; bringing electricity to remote villages and hamlets without electricity, the method of calculating electricity prices must be more reasonable... These are also issues that the Electricity sector has been interested in solving in the past time.

Explaining the voters' opinions requesting the Provincial People's Committee to pay attention to directing the Electricity sector to bring electricity to communes and villages without national grid across the province, Director of Nghe An Electricity Company Trinh Phuong Tram said: Currently, phase 1 has completed 100% of the plan to connect electricity to 48 villages, hamlets, and centers in 16 communes of 3 districts: Ky Son, Tuong Duong, and Quy Chau.

Director of Nghe An Electricity Company Trinh Phuong Tram explains voters' recommendations. Photo: Thanh Le

Phase 2 of the project will bring national grid electricity to 185 villages in 54 communes in 8 districts of the province. Nghe An Electricity Company has completed the project preparation, but is currently waiting for budget capital to continue implementation.

Regarding this content, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade Nguyen Huy Cuong said: The Prime Minister has issued Decision No. 1740/QD-TTg approving the target program for rural, mountainous and island electricity supply, period 2016-2020, including the list, investment needs and capital balance of the rural, mountainous and island electricity supply program for the period 2016-2020 for Nghe An province. Accordingly, the investment capital for the national grid of Nghe An province invested by EVN is 718 billion VND, of which EVN's counterpart capital is 108 billion VND.

Mr. Ta Huu Hung - Deputy Director in charge of Ban Ve Hydropower Company clarified the content of the voters' petition. Photo: Thanh Le

According to Mr. Cuong, the goal of having electricity in all villages by the end of 2020 is difficult to achieve, because many villages are dozens of kilometers from the commune center, with less than 10 households living there, and there are no roads leading to the village, so it is very difficult to bring grid electricity to these villages.

"To provide electricity to remote villages, the Provincial People's Committee has a project to provide electricity to rural areas from renewable energy sources, invested by the Provincial People's Committee at a cost of 83 billion VND, of which the Provincial People's Committee's counterpart capital is 12 billion VND. When these projects are completed, all villages and hamlets in the province will be supplied with electricity from the national grid from renewable energy sources," Mr. Cuong affirmed.

The “hot” issue that voters are concerned about is the increase in electricity prices, the method of calculating electricity prices was clarified by Mr. Trinh Phuong Tram: The increase in electricity bills of customers in the past month was basically implemented correctly. Because the finalization of electricity bills for household electricity customers is on the 20th of each month, the calculation according to the new price only takes 2 days. Therefore, the electricity bill for May clearly shows the new electricity price.

“This is a macro issue of the Vietnam Electricity Group and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, while local electricity companies must follow regulations. Regarding the increase in electricity prices, the Government has directed the inspection and requested the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Electricity Group to clarify,” said Mr. Tram.

Invest in flood warning system

Regarding hydropower projects, the content that voters focused on petitioning was still the issue of land allocation for production being delayed, with many shortcomings leading to resettled households returning to live in the reservoir; the impacts and consequences of hydropower on the lives of people in mountainous districts.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation Tran Van Mao said that Nghe An is a province with many hydropower plants, which greatly affects the socio-economic development and people's lives. "The most worrying thing is the current landslide situation in mountainous districts. Ban Ve Hydropower Company needs to coordinate with localities to have a long-term strategy and policies to reinvest in areas with hydropower plants.

At the same time, focus on implementing good flood discharge management, pay attention to investing in flood flow warning systems to hydroelectric reservoirs, and operate the Ban Ve Hydroelectric Project safely and effectively, in accordance with the requirements of flood reduction and reduction for downstream areas during the flood season and water supply for downstream areas during the dry season," Mr. Tran Van Mao suggested.

Ban Ve Hydropower Plant releases floodwaters. Photo: Nhat Lan

At the meeting, the electricity industry also suggested that the provincial National Assembly delegation propose to the Government, the Ministry of Industry and Trade... to direct the Vietnam Electricity Group to advance capital to implement the rural electricity supply project; create maximum conditions for compensation for land acquisition and clearance of power projects according to the required goals and progress, ensuring land funds for the project; have separate regulations for replacing the original electric poles in violations of land reserved for roads,...

Propose that the Provincial Delegation of National Assembly Deputies propose that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment promptly submit to the Prime Minister to amend the inter-reservoir operation process in the Ca River basin before the 2019 storm season; promptly implement the project of the hydrometeorological radar system to improve the quality of hydrometeorological forecasting for the Ca River.

Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Trade Nguyen Huy Cuong spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Le

Concluding the meeting, Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation Nguyen Thanh Hien acknowledged the efforts of the Electricity sector to serve the local socio-economic development.

The Deputy Head of the Provincial Delegation of National Assembly Deputies also hopes that the Electricity sector will continue to pay attention to implementing the political tasks of the unit, implementing social security policies well, and implementing the conclusions of the Government, ministries, departments, branches and Nghe An province. At the same time, he requested Nghe An Electricity and hydropower projects to pay attention, responsibly resolve, and thoroughly handle voters' recommendations.