Ready to participate in competitive power generation market

(Baonghean)The competitive electricity market - the first step in the development of Vietnam's electricity market - officially began operating on July 1, 2012, on the same day as the application of new retail electricity prices for consumers, an increase of 5% compared to before.

According to the list approved by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in the first phase of operation, there will be 29 power plants directly participating in the competitive electricity market submitting bids to the Electricity Trading Company (EPTC) under the Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN), with a total installed capacity of about 9,035 MW; there are 26 power plants indirectly participating and 18 power plants temporarily indirectly participating.

Units participating in the electricity generation competition include power plants with a capacity of 30 MW or more, connected to the national grid. In Nghe An province, there are currently 3 plants eligible to participate in the competitive electricity market, namely Ban Ve Hydropower Plant, Hua Na Hydropower Plant and Khe Bo Hydropower Plant (currently, Hua Na and Khe Bo Hydropower Plants have not generated electricity). Ban Ve Hydropower Plant has a capacity of 320 MW, starting to generate electricity from April 10, 2010. After more than 2 years of operation, the plant has achieved a commercial electricity output of nearly 2 billion kWh, contributing an important part in supplying electricity to the country in general and our province in particular.



Ban Ve Hydropower Plant has a capacity of 320 MW.

Mr. Cao Minh Tu, Deputy Head of Planning Department and Head of Electricity Market Team - Hydropower Project Management Board 2 said: Ban Ve Hydropower Plant is currently one of 18 power plants on the list of "Temporarily indirectly participating in the Competitive Electricity Market". Implementing the policies and directions of the Government, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Vietnam Electricity Group on preparing conditions to participate in the competitive electricity market, Ban Ve Hydropower Company has established an electricity market team; participated in training courses and instructions on operating the competitive electricity market. Developed an operating process to participate in the electricity market and basically completed the infrastructure to serve the market, including: Electricity metering system, terminal equipment; information technology systems (such as internal information network system, bidding system, dispatch management system, electricity market payment support system and SCADA/EMS system)... Since June 2011, the Company has participated in the pilot competitive electricity market and coordinated with relevant units to successfully test market operation software. Currently, the Company has met the conditions and is ready to participate in the competitive electricity market according to the roadmap.

At the same time as the competitive electricity market was put into operation, the retail electricity price for households, production and business increased by 5%, on average from 1,304 VND/kW to 1,369 VND/kW (excluding VAT). Accordingly, the highest retail price for household electricity will be 2,192 VND, instead of the old level of 2,060 VND/kWh; the highest applicable production electricity price will be 2,306 VND, an increase of 281 VND/kWh; the most expensive business electricity price will be 3,539 VND/kWh, an increase of 170 VND. The retail price for household electricity up to 50 kWh applied to poor households and low-income households remains at the old level of 993 VND...

Mr. Nguyen Thuong Hien, Deputy Director of Sales of Nghe An Electricity Company said: "Currently, the Company is managing 518,543 electricity customers, including household lighting, business and production. Implementing Circular No. 17/2012/TT-BCT dated June 29, 2012 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade regulating electricity prices and Official Letter No. 2213/EVN-KD dated June 29, 2012 of EVN, on July 1, Electricity workers simultaneously launched to finalize electricity meter indexes for more than 30,000 customers in the production and business group to serve as the basis for calculating new prices. For customers who have finalized meter indexes, the finalized indexes will be used to determine the amount of electricity corresponding to the old and new prices, as the basis for making invoices during the price change period. For customers who buy electricity for household use without finalizing the index, the determination of the amount of electricity used will be calculated according to the principle interpolation of output and rounding of numbers (taking the average daily electricity usage in the month, based on July 1 to determine the amount of electricity according to the old and new prices)”...

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the operation of the competitive electricity market is an important development step of the electricity industry, marking the transition from the current mechanism to a market-based operation mechanism, and will not affect the current management and operation mechanism of power plants. In the long term, customers will have the opportunity to choose an electricity supplier, as well as enjoy other benefits from the competitive electricity market. And this adjustment in electricity prices does not have a significant impact on production, business and daily life activities of the people; for poor households and low-income households using up to 50 kWh of electricity per month, the selling price is kept unchanged... Households using normal electricity at 100 kWh per month will increase by 4,200 VND; using 150 kWh will increase by 8,600 VND, using 200 kWh will increase by 14,050 VND.

Ngoc Anh