Renewable investors voice grievances over price negotiations, delays

Hanoi - Wind and solar power investors continued to voice their grievances over difficulties in price negotiations and extending project deadlines with the Power Trading Company (EVNEPTC), a subsidiary of Vietnam Electricity (EVN) Group, the sole power distributor in the market.

Investors said they had submitted documents and requested to participate in negotiations with the Power Trading Company. The process had been said to be very slow due to a lack of guidelines and price calculations and negotiations.

In addition, numerous submitted forms and documents had not been approved.

In order to expedite the process and quickly connect renewable energy sources to the national grid, investors urged Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to instruct the Ministry of Industry and Trade to issue detailed guidelines for price negotiations in a timely manner.

They also called for renewable projects that meet operational and technical requirements to be connected to the national grid in the meantime.

According to a proposal by the investors, there are several courses of action to resolve the ongoing issues.

First, EVN will pay investors at 90 per cent of the ceiling price set by the ministry's Decision 21 until a final price can be successfully negotiated.

Second, EVN will pay investors at 50 per cent of the ceiling price set by Government Decision 21 and start a complaint process. Once price negotiation is completed, EVN will make a full payment at negotiated prices for the entire period, starting from when projects began generating power.

Third, in the event temporary prices are set as low as 50 per cent of the ceiling price, it should not be counted towards the 20-year official power purchase agreement between EVN and the investors.

Investors said they recommend a government leader preside over a meeting among the MoIT, EVN, other ministries and representatives sent by investors to hammer out a solution to connect renewable projects to the national grid as soon as possible.

According to the investors, the options were based on actual investment cost data, the situation of the projects and the investors' financial capacity. They are also willing to collaborate and coordinate with the ministry and other governmental agencies to produce and provide any and all documents required for price negotiations.

MoIT's Decision 21 stipulated ceiling prices for renewable projects as follows: 1,184.90 VND per kWh for land-based solar projects, 1,508.27 VND per kWh for floating solar projects, 1,587.12 VND per kWh for land-based wind projects and 1,815.95 VND per kWh for offshore wind projects.

In an earlier development, EVN proposed a scheme to pay investors a temporary price at 50 per cent of what was set in Decision 21 while waiting for price negotiations to be completed.

In response, the group of investors said in the event of no recourse and deduction from the Power Purchase Agreement the proposed temporary price will, in effect, act as the official price, which is completely against the government's policy of promoting renewable energy development and the government's commitments to carbon emissions reduction through renewable energy development.