EVN upbeat about HCMC wholesale power pilot

Three-stage pilot

The roadmap for VWEM development, approved by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, consists of two stages: a pilot operation from 2016-2018, and official operation from 2019. In 2016, EVN HCMC piloted the VWEM through the implementation of three power purchase and sale agreements signed with the Ban Ve Hydropower Plant with design capacity of 320MW, the Nhon Trach 1 Thermal Power Plant (450MW) and Hai Phong Thermal Power Plant (600MW). After a short period of pilot operation, EVN HCMC said it had gotten used to managing power purchase agreements with different generation technologies, as well as payments through the spot market and futures market.

In 2017, EVN HCMC continued piloting the VWEM mechanisms, such as payments through the spot market and futures market, the regulatory mechanism between electricity corporations, assessments of impacts on revenues of power generation units, and the cost of power purchases by electricity corporations. EVN HCMC will summarize the pilot results to make necessary mechanism adjustments before putting the VWEM into official operation.

VWEM is being piloted in three stages. In the first stage, EVN HCMC collects electricity meter data, makes consumption forecasts, works out the plan for implementing power purchase and sale agreements, and calculates the regulatory demand between electricity corporations. In the second stage, EVN HCMC will calculate payments according to competitive wholesale market mechanisms. In the third stage, new power plants commencing operations in 2017 and 2018 will sign power purchase and sale agreements directly with electricity corporations. Based on the results of the second stage, payments will be made in the third stage.

Safe operations

Safe operations of the competitive power generation market have contributed to enhanced transparency of electricity supplies, ensuring that the cost of power generation complies with the law of supply and demand, as well as government policies. Competition requires power companies to reduce the cost of power generation and offer competitive prices in the electricity market.

According to the Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN), pilot operations of VWEM have contributed to maintaining safe operations of power systems, thus increasing profits for power companies and promoting sustainable development of the electricity sector in accordance with government guidelines.

An EVN HCMC report shows that the corporation has prepared necessary information technology facilities and organized training courses to improve the quality of human resources to serve the electricity market. In the future, EVN HCMC will continue organizing specialized training courses in negotiation skills, electricity consumption forecasting and information technology. At the same time, the corporation will provide guidance for its member units to build necessary information technology infrastructure for operating and monitoring VWEM.

EVN is concentrating on implementing its tasks assigned by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, including human resource training, contributing ideas to drafting VWEM regulation, and building information technology facilities according to approved designs.