It is considering a tariff structure for all types of energy, on the basis of which investors would negotiate electricity prices with the state-owned monopoly distributor Vietnam Electricity, said Nguyen Tuan Anh, deputy head of the ministry of electricity and renewable energy, at a meeting held on December 22 to discuss bottlenecks faced by the renewable energy sector.
It is expected that the tariffs will be announced after the government approves the VIII Electricity Development Plan for 2021-30.
Feed-in tariffs, or the prices that offshore and onshore wind power producers will get for their electricity, are 9.8 cents and 8.5 cents per kilowatt hour for 20 years for those who started commercial production before November, 1st.
A total of 84 people benefited from the incentive rates intended to stimulate investment in renewable energies.
62 other wind projects with a total capacity of nearly 3,500 MW were unable to start commercial production before November 1 and are now in production.
They have a combined investment of around $ 7 billion, of which $ 4 billion is borrowed from banks, said Pham Nhu Anh, a member of the board of directors of the Military Bank.
Many investors in renewable energy projects said at the meeting that they were unable to start commercial production until November 1 due to Covid-19, and urged relevant agencies to publish promptly new pricing policies and mechanisms for them.
BB Group deputy general manager Dang Manh Cuong said his company ordered wind turbines and other equipment earlier this year, but only arrived when the pandemic was raging in southern Vietnam.
“The equipment of our two wind projects was blocked in a port of HCMC for three months because the city imposed a social distancing”.
Ho Ta Tin, president of the HBRE group, said wind projects that could not start operating before November 1 due to Covid-19 should also benefit from incentive purchase tariffs, but below 6.8 -6.9 cents per kilowatt hour and for only 10 years.
Wind and solar started to develop in Vietnam in 2011 and have been booming since 2017 thanks to FIT incentives.
The country now has an installed capacity of over 16,000 MW of solar power and 4,100 MW of wind power. Renewable energies (solar, wind, biomass, etc.) represent 22,000 MW, or 25% of the total electricity supply.
