Which way will the price of electricity go?

The retail electricity price structure is being completed with the aim of moving towards an appropriate electricity price policy for the majority of households using electricity for daily life.

The draft “Project to improve the structure of retail electricity prices for households” is being widely consulted by Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) to be finalized in October. People are still looking forward to an electricity price structure that enhances transparency, ensures the highest level of transparency and balances the interests between the State, businesses and consumers, as well as effectively implements the policy of using electricity economically, effectively and reasonably, so that people do not have to pay too much for electricity use.

Building a household electricity tariff structure is necessary.

Currently, the electricity industry is implementing the retail electricity price structure according to Decision 28 of the Prime Minister. When designing the current retail electricity price list, the electricity industry has considered the actual electricity usage of 4 main customer groups: Production customers, household customers, administrative and service customers.

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After adjusting electricity prices in March 2015, some customers have commented that the current retail electricity price structure is not suitable, especially for customers using electricity for daily life. In response to customer feedback, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has assigned EVN to develop a project to improve the retail electricity price structure with the aim of assessing the current situation of electricity use, focusing first on whether the retail electricity price structure is suitable for customers using electricity for daily life.

Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Director of the Electricity Regulatory Authority (Ministry of Industry and Trade), said that based on the actual assessment of the electricity usage of household electricity customers, EVN has considered and proposed a number of options with different scenarios to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each option. In case the price list is not suitable for actual usage, the electricity industry must improve and adjust the structure of the retail electricity price list.

Also according to the representative of the Electricity Regulatory Authority, after being assigned by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to inspect and evaluate the current status of electricity use in the years from 2013 to 2014 and the first 8 months of 2015, EVN has compiled data and proposed 3 options to adjust the structure of retail electricity prices for households.

Among the options proposed by EVN, Option 1 is to maintain the current electricity price list with specific analysis of advantages and disadvantages. This is considered a way for EVN to evaluate and compare the current retail electricity price list with the newly proposed electricity price lists, in order to have a basis for adjustment to choose the most suitable retail electricity price list structure.

“According to the Electricity Law, when the electricity industry adjusts electricity prices, Vietnam Electricity Group holds a dominant market share of about 95% in retail distribution. With the position and role of EVN, assigning EVN to implement the project to study and propose options to adjust the structure of retail electricity prices is completely appropriate,” said Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan.

Calculate the electricity price ladder to regulate electricity usage

Through a number of workshops to gather opinions on the project to improve the retail electricity price list, it can be seen that the project focuses on improving the ladder electricity price list as the core, with the goal of making the new retail electricity price list structure suitable for low-income household electricity users, prioritizing poor households and policy households.

Evaluating the Draft Project on improving the structure of retail electricity prices, Mr. Hoang Van Tuy, Deputy Head of the Finance and Accounting Department of Vietnam Electricity Group, said that the project on improving the structure of retail electricity prices is a research project, so it is necessary to propose the most feasible and suitable options. The project must evaluate and analyze the impacts as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each option, from which to synthesize to choose a feasible option, with the goal of aiming at an appropriate electricity price policy for the majority of households using electricity for daily life.

According to VOV