Vietnam tops ASEAN in electricity sources, output up 4.56% in 2023: EVN

Vietnam’s electricity sources in 2023 grew 3.6% year-on-year to 80,555 MW while output rose 4.56% to 280.6 billion kWh, state utility Vietnam Electricity (EVN) reported Tuesday.

It said Vietnam has topped ASEAN in terms of electricity sources, which included 21,664 MW of renewable energy, or 27% of the total.

Electricity sales reached 251.25 billion kWh, up 3.52% year-on-year, EVN said.

Power shortages early in the year were caused by drought conditions that saw water levels drop at many hydropower reservoirs. As a result, hydropower accounted for just 28.4% of output last year, lower than the normal figure of around 35% in years, said EVN general director Nguyen Anh Tuan.

Despite accounting for 27% of power sources, renewable energy made up just 13% of power generation last year, the executive added. Coal-fired power made up 46.2% of output despite making up only 33.2% of power sources, Tuan said.

With renewable energy being costly and hydropower as a stable source is limited, EVN was facing high power costs of VND2,092.8 ($0.086) per kWh, higher than its selling price of VND1,950 ($0.08) per kWh, Tuan said.

He asked customers to sympathize with the utility and called for policy adjustments to redress financial issues facing the national utility.

EVN earned VND497 trillion ($20.38 billion) from selling electricity in 2023, up 5.4% year-on-year, Tuan added.