Ministry figures way out for renewables projects missing feed-in-tariff deadline

Vietnam Electricity has been asked to set a price bracket, based on a newly issued circular, for renewable energy projects that have failed to meet the deadline for incentivized feed-in-tariff (FiT).

The instruction to form a price bracket has been issued by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

To date, 62 wind projects with a combined apacity of 3,479 megawatts have not been able to sell their energy to Vietnam Electricity (EVN) because they failed to meet the deadline though they’d signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the state utility.

According to MoIT, another 452 MW of electricity from solar projects is also stuck for the same reason.

On October 3, the ministry issued Circular 15 stipulating a method of building a price bracket for these projects, often referred to as transitional power projects.

The very next day, the ministry asked EVN to build such a bracket to help the projects get out of trouble. EVN has been asked to request the solar power investors with PPAs signed before January 1, 2021, and wind power investors with PPAs signed before November 1, 2021 to submit project configurations needed for building the price bracket.

On September 12, EVN had sent the ministry an official letter saying it could not negotiate PPAs with renewables projects that have failed to meet the FiT deadline as “it is not feasible under Vietnamese conditions.”