Early handover of rural low voltage grid to the Electricity industry for management
It is expected that by the end of 2012, 130 communes in our province that have not yet been handed over will be taken over by the Electricity sector so that people can soon benefit.
According to Nghe An Electricity Company, as of June 2011, the Electricity sector has received 294 communes and clusters agreeing to hand over the rural power grid system in the province. Accordingly, the unit has received from the communes a total volume of more than 6,000 km of medium and low voltage lines, selling electricity directly to 360,207 households.
After receiving the contract, the Electricity sector has signed electricity purchase contracts with each household; at the same time, replaced all expired meters, supplemented the grounding system, replaced broken beams, broken insulators, cleared the power grid corridor..., with a total cost of more than 75 billion VND.
Hung Phu (Hung Nguyen) is one of the earliest communes to hand over the power grid to the Electricity sector for management. In July 2009, Phu Thanh Agricultural, Service and General Cooperative (Hung Phu commune) handed over more than 7 km of power lines, 256 electric poles with nearly 800 households using electricity. Mr. Nguyen Duy Chuong, Chairman of the Cooperative, said: "After 2 years of handover, the commune's power grid system has received better investment from the Electricity sector. The quality of electricity is guaranteed, people enjoy the State's electricity price, so everyone is happy."
Hung Khanh (Hung Nguyen) is one of the communes that has not yet handed over the rural low-voltage grid to the Electricity sector for management.
Mr. Tran Van Minh's family (Hamlet 2, Hung Phu Commune, Hung Nguyen District) has a rice milling machine and many electrical appliances in the house. Since the electricity handover, and enjoying the Government's tiered price, his family has saved nearly 100,000 VND/month on electricity bills.
Not only people benefit from the handover of the LDHANT to the Electricity industry for management, but also the electricity trading companies. Mr. Vuong Dinh Dung, Deputy Head of Planning and Materials Department, Nghe An Electricity Company, said: Before receiving, the general power loss of the rural power grid was up to 38%. But now, after 2 years of receiving, the rural power grid system has been invested in, upgraded wires, poles, and replaced meters, so the power loss has decreased to 21%, making tens of billions of dong in profit.
Currently, in the province, there are still 130 communes managed by local organizations that have not been received by the Electricity sector. Of these, there are over 93 communes under the Rural Energy II project (RE.II) and 37 communes not under the project managed by rural electricity business organizations. For the 37 communes not under the RE.II project, after receiving the official dispatch from the Government and EVN, the Department of Industry and Trade and the Electricity Company went to the locality to persuade the communes to hand over the power grid to the Electricity sector for management.
However, at that time, these cooperatives were doing profitable business and did not want to hand over. However, due to lack of capital, these cooperatives had difficulty investing in upgrading and renovating the power grid system. The difference between the buying and selling prices was only enough to pay the salaries of the members. In order to avoid losses and have a budget to pay for the apparatus, these cooperatives were forced to raise the selling price of electricity higher than the price regulated by the State, causing difficulties for the people.
Hung Chau (Hung Nguyen) is a commune in the RE.II Project, but from August 2008 (with the policy of handing over the rural power grid system to the Electricity sector for management) to April 2011, the commune has just invested in upgrading the electric pole system with the project's capital. Thus, the delay in handing over the power grid system to the Electricity sector for management causes difficulties in the daily life as well as production and business of the people and the Electricity sector loses a large amount of money. Mr. Le Van Voi, Deputy Head of the Hung Chau Commune Cooperative, said: "The commune's power grid system was built in 1986 but due to lack of capital, the Cooperative could not upgrade anything. There were many months when we lost more than 10 million VND, so we had to raise the electricity price. Now, we really want the Electricity sector to take over.
Faced with the situation of business losses, many cooperatives have turned back to "force" the electricity industry to take over. However, as Mr. Vuong Dinh Dung said, these cooperatives are "making it difficult" for the electricity industry. "When doing business with profit, they refuse to hand over, but when they suffer losses, they demand to hand over." In response to the "demands" of the 37 communes above, the Provincial People's Committee has had a meeting with the Northern Power Corporation. Accordingly, it is expected that by June 2012, the electricity industry will take over 37 communes that are not included in the RE.II Project and have submitted a proposal for handover.
By the end of 2012, the Electricity sector will take over all 130 remaining communes in the province. However, with a large area and a degraded power grid system, Nghe An Electricity Company is facing difficulties in capital sources to invest in and upgrade the power grid for the communes. Mr. Dung is concerned: "In the near future, the process of asset valuation and capital repayment for cooperatives will be difficult because most cooperatives do not have full records and documents of construction works; there are also no lists of money collected from members and people, so it is very difficult to separate the structure of investment capital from the cooperative. Moreover, to take over and upgrade the rural power grid system, the Electricity sector needs a lot of capital but it is very difficult to borrow and has to pay high interest rates".
Pham Bang
