Vietnam moves towards competitive energy market

Thứ ba, 19/4/2011 | 15:22 GMT+7

Vietnam is speeding up technical preparations in a bid to foster a competitive power generation market beginning July 1.

To meet this target, the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade urged the Electricity Regulation Authority of Vietnam (ERAV) to issue regulations and techniques for such a market in May. ERAV was told to get approval for plans for training in the expected market for staff at energy producing facilities by April 15. The agency should be responsible for setting up a working group that will manage the market, Vuong noted. The state-owned Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN), the country’s current sole power distributor, must prepare software to facilitate market operations in all stages, he noted. EVN is considering requiring its subsidiaries to include both fixed and negotiable prices in their power purchase agreements by May 30 in order to best serve the market, he added. Currently these agreements only have fixed prices. ERAV has already said that, by 2011, it would get approval for electricity development plans for cities and provinces nationwide for the 2011-2015 period. Between 2011 and 2014, it will design and prepare a set of procedures that could help create a path to a competitive power whole sale market after 2014. At present, EVN has the unique rights to buy electricity from all domestic power producers for nationwide distribution, in addition to making purchases from neighbours such as China, Laos and Cambodia. Source: DTI News