Vietnam suspends the acquisition of power from photovoltaic projects

    The Vietnam Electricity Company (EVN) announced that its electric company will stop purchasing rooftop Solar Complete System solar power after December 31, 2020, pending further government guidance. The company will also process the grid connection of the solar power generation system and sign the relevant requirements in the power purchase contract before the deadline.

    EVN stated that the Prime Minister's Decision No. 13/2020/QĐ-TTg on encouraging Vietnam to develop a solar power generator system issued on April 6, 2020 will expire after December 31, 2020. However, after this date, there are no new decisions and guidance to implement this policy.

    The Electricity and Renewable Energy Administration (ERAV) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade is cooperating with consulting units to study the mode, scale and corresponding power purchase and sale price of each rooftop solar power generation. It is expected that the agency will report to the Ministry of Energy for its consideration, and submit to the Prime Minister in the first quarter of 2021 the next phase of policies to encourage rooftop solar power generation.

    EVN said: “For rooftop solar power projects developed after December 31, 2020, if there is no new decision by PM, the power unit will not record the power generation of the grid and purchase electricity.”.

    An EVN representative stated that the group and its member units are committed to supporting the development of renewable energy, especially rooftop solar power.

    As of December 25, a total of 83,000 rooftop solar power projects were connected to the EVN grid, with a total installed capacity of nearly 4700MWp. The total grid-connected power generation of rooftop solar power projects has reached more than 1.13 billion kilowatt-hours, which has contributed to ensuring the country's power supply.

    According to Decision No. 13/2020/QĐ-TTg, the purchase price of rooftop solar power projects is 8.38 cents/kWh. Connected projects that will be in commercial operation before December 31, 2020 will last for 20 years. This is the most expensive investment in solar power generation and one of the reasons for the large-scale development of rooftop solar energy in recent years.