Minister Nguyen Hong Dien chaired the conference.
On the afternoon of September 30, under the chairmanship of Minister Nguyen Hong Dien, the Ministry of Industry and Trade held a conference to collect opinions from experts, managers, businesses and relevant units in the energy sector on implementing a competitive electricity market.
At the conference, Mr. Pham Nguyen Hung, Director of the Electricity Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), said that the Ministry of Industry and Trade has urgently summarized and developed the Government 's Action Program to implement Resolution 70-NQ/TW, focusing on perfecting institutions, supervising energy planning and strategy, and ensuring national energy security.
In addition to the achievements of the electricity market after 13 years of implementation under Decision 63/2013/QD-TTg, many bottlenecks still exist as pointed out by the Electricity Authority such as: Low rate of electricity sources participating in the market (especially BOT, renewable energy); competitive wholesale electricity market has not really opened with many wholesale electricity buyers; ancillary service market has not been formed; output contract mechanism (Qc) has not been effective; PPA negotiations are prolonged; lack of risk management tools; retail prices have not separated costs, and there is cross-subsidy.
Mr. Pham Nguyen Hung, Director of the Electricity Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), pointed out the remaining bottlenecks after 13 years of implementing Decision 63/2013/QD-TTg.
To resolve the issue, the Government issued Decree 72/2025/ND-CP on the mechanism for adjusting retail electricity prices, building a price framework for electricity generation, import, transmission and ancillary services; reforming the household price list to 6 levels; adding prices for tourism and electric vehicle charging; and preparing to pilot a two-component electricity price mechanism from the end of 2025.
According to Mr. Nguyen Duc Ninh, General Director of the National Electricity System and Market Operation Company (NSMO), in the current period, NSMO is assigned three key tasks: Coordinate with the Electricity Authority to develop a roadmap for the development of a new electricity market, replacing Decision 63/2013/QD-TTg, aiming to operate the retail market from 2027; review and adjust the design of the electricity market (replacing Decision 8266/QD-BCT and Decision 2093/QD-BCT), ensuring compliance with reality, reporting the results to the Ministry of Industry and Trade in December 2025; improve transparency of market information, standardize data disclosure for operation and monitoring.
To achieve the dual goal of both increasing market competitiveness and ensuring energy security, Mr. Nguyen Duc Ninh proposed that the Ministry of Industry and Trade direct three groups of solutions, including: Early issuance of a roadmap for developing the electricity market to replace Decision 63/2013/QD-TTg, creating a synchronous legal foundation for the new phase; organizing detailed implementation, clearly assigning responsibilities between the Electricity Authority, NSMO, EVN and related units to ensure progress; arranging urgent information technology infrastructure resources; approving and implementing the MMS electricity market system project and other infrastructures in 2025, serving operations and payments according to the requirements of the competitive electricity market.
Mr. Nguyen Xuan Nam, Deputy General Director of EVN, affirmed that ensuring energy security and providing enough electricity for the country is the highest goal.
Need to design appropriate market
Representative of Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN), Mr. Nguyen Xuan Nam, Deputy General Director affirmed that ensuring energy security and providing enough electricity for the country is the highest goal.
According to Mr. Nam, the process of building a competitive electricity market must be placed in the specific context of Vietnam. Firstly, the proportion of renewable energy has accounted for 30% of the system capacity (nearly 30,000 MW), creating great pressure on dispatch and operation. Secondly, the demand for electricity growth of 12-15%/year is very "hot" compared to many developed countries, where the increase is only about 3%. If the market design is not suitable, Vietnam will have difficulty attracting new investment.
Mr. Bui Quoc Hoan, Deputy General Director of the Southern Power Corporation (EVNSPC), affirmed that the core element of the competitive electricity market is the electricity price mechanism. Currently, there is still a situation of cross-subsidy between customer groups and between regions. To implement a competitive retail market, it is necessary to consider building a flexible retail electricity price mechanism, negotiated by electricity retailers and electricity customers according to electricity market regulations. Customers who do not participate in the market will apply a unified retail electricity price according to State regulations.
Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Vice President of the Energy Association, said that a healthy competitive electricity market can only be formed when there are enough goods to buy and sell. Currently, only about 38% of the total capacity participates in the electricity market. If BOT power sources and renewable energy sources that are enjoying the FIT mechanism continue to not participate in the market, this rate will be even lower. That means the market lacks "sellers", and cannot accurately reflect the supply-demand relationship.
Based on the above analysis, the Energy Association recommends that all power plants, regardless of size and type, after the preferential period must participate in the competitive electricity market. Only when the proportion of participating sources gradually increases, will electricity prices reflect real costs and create a signal for investment in the right direction.
The representative of the Energy Association also said that the current problem is that electricity prices are still calculated based on the national level, without distinguishing between regions. This makes it difficult for investors to make decisions because it does not accurately reflect transmission and distribution costs. The Association agrees with the proposal to study the electricity price mechanism by region or node (nodal pricing), to create more accurate investment signals, and at the same time encourage large customers to participate in the market.
Regarding this issue, energy expert Ha Dang Son recommended that the Ministry of Industry and Trade soon study and switch to applying a more flexible electricity price mechanism, linked to actual consumption and new technology, allowing EVN to adjust retail electricity prices more flexibly according to market signals.
Opinions are unanimous that developing a competitive electricity market and reforming the electricity price mechanism are inevitable requirements and trends.
There is a roadmap to eliminate cross-subsidy in electricity prices.
Concluding the conference, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien affirmed that all opinions agreed that developing a competitive electricity market and reforming the electricity price mechanism is an inevitable, objective and irreversible requirement and trend to remove bottlenecks, create momentum to promote energy development, and meet the country's economic development needs, especially the requirement of double-digit growth in the coming years.
Regarding specific tasks, through discussion, delegates agreed that in building and perfecting the system of legal documents, on the one hand, it is necessary to continue to evaluate, review and promptly amend the Electricity Law as the highest legal basis to remove current difficulties and obstacles for the development and operation of the competitive electricity market at all levels, and at the same time, continue to review and evaluate the whole picture to adjust the design of the competitive wholesale and competitive retail electricity markets.
"It is necessary to promptly amend and supplement regulations on the operation of the competitive electricity market at each level, ensuring compliance with the adjusted roadmap and design. A principle that needs to be respected is that market price signals must become an important factor in attracting investment," the Minister emphasized.
According to the Minister, there must be a roadmap to eliminate cross-subsidy in electricity prices between customer groups and regions, in accordance with the level of competitive market; promulgate regulations on distribution service prices, ensuring the principle of "correct and sufficient calculation" of costs, especially in the electricity transmission stage.
In addition, it is necessary to issue a mechanism to manage and regulate the use of primary fuels for power generation, especially gas and blended gas prices, to ensure energy efficiency and security.
"Institutions must be opened up, removing all bottlenecks in each stage of electricity operations. As many experts have suggested, it is necessary to boldly remove the investment policy level for projects that are already in the planning to reduce procedures, promote progress and unleash social resources," the Minister emphasized.
Anh Tho
Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/huong-toi-thi-truong-dien-canh-tranh-dam-bao-an-ninh-nang-luong-102251001131259739.htm
Comment (0)