The Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed to temporarily apply the price of purchasing excess rooftop solar power sent to the grid at 671 VND per kWh.
To encourage the development of clean energy, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to conduct a pilot study on self-produced and self-consumed rooftop solar power, which will be sold to the national grid. The maximum output sold is 10% of the total capacity. The Ministry was also asked to set a price to buy excess electricity from self-consumed rooftop solar power systems.
In the report on July 11, the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed options for buying and selling prices. Option 1the price of purchasing excess electricity is calculated based on the average annual avoidable cost table issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Avoidable cost is the cost of producing 1 kWh calculated according to the time of use during the day and regions and seasons during the year, applicable to small power plants using renewable energy that do not have their own price.
Plan 2taken as the hourly marginal electricity market price (SMP) (excluding the market capacity price – CAN) and minus the distribution cost per 1 kWh. This is the price of the last unit or plant participating in generating electricity into the system.
However, the Ministry of Industry and Trade believes that there is currently no suitable method to establish the price for purchasing excess electricity, so there is not enough reason to take the price for purchasing excess electricity to the national grid according to option 1 or 2.
Therefore, the authorities propose to temporarily apply the purchase price of excess electricity to the grid from 600-700 VND per kWh, specifically 671 VND per kWh (calculated according to the average avoided cost in 2023). This level is 58-63% lower than the purchase price of transitional renewable energy projects currently applied according to the price framework of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (1,587-1,816 VND per kWh).
The Ministry of Industry and Trade said that this price can be adjusted annually to suit each development period of the power system. This plan is simple, easy to implement and saves investment costs for EVN.
Regarding the pilot requirement to purchase excess electricity output of up to 10% of total capacity, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that this option would be costly, as people would have to install additional equipment that could limit the amount of electricity sent to the grid (limit export). This would limit investment incentives.
Therefore, the Ministry proposes a plan to buy back no more than 10% of the total surplus electricity generated to the grid. This is to ensure incentives, simplify implementation, save investment costs, and avoid negativity and waste of social resources.
The country has about 103,000 rooftop solar power projects, with a total installed capacity of more than 9,500 MW. According to the Power Plan VIII, the scale of this type of source will increase by 2,600 MW by 2030, or reach 50% of office buildings and residential buildings.
Previously, when drafting the draft, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the policy was not “keen” on buying and selling self-consumed solar power because this source of power is unstable and depends entirely on weather factors. The Ministry also proposed to only record surplus output, at a price of 0 VND. However, after commenting, many experts proposed allowing people to sell the surplus to the grid. At the same time, authorities can set a limit on the surplus rate to prevent policy profiteering, especially in industrial zones and clusters.