In early 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Trade directed the Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) to hire a consultant to calculate and develop the Project "Research and develop a roadmap for applying two-component electricity prices (capacity price, electricity price) for production and business customer groups". Up to now, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that the content of the project has been completed.
According to the project, EVN proposes a basic solution of a price system that purely reflects the cost of electricity supply and takes into account the electricity consumption characteristics of customer groups.
At the same time, classify by customer group including non-domestic customers; residential customers with output up to 2,000kWh/month; customers with output over 2,000kWh/month; classify by voltage level including 4 levels: super high voltage, high voltage, medium voltage and low voltage.
For non-residential customers, EVN proposes a common two-component electricity price list in the form of capacity price (VND/kW) and peak and off-peak electricity price (VND/kWh). These are three groups including production, business and administrative services in the current price system.
Household customers have a scale and consumption output greater than 2,000kWh/month, similar to non-household customers but consume at low voltage level. Statistics show that this group is up to 56,000 customers, equipping a two-component metering system is not possible in the immediate stage.
Therefore, in the first phase, it is not proposed to apply but it is possible to consider a two-component price plan in the way it is applied to households with output under 2,000kWh/month, that is, collecting a fixed price according to the package and the electricity price remains unchanged.
For customers with low consumption output (under 2,000kWh/month), the two-component household price list will include a fixed price according to consumption scale and a flat electricity price (at 1,598 VND/kWh).
Because this group has a large number of customers, the group of customers consuming less than 50kWh/month is still receiving support from the Government. Therefore, the consumption scale to calculate the fixed price is being built according to the current ladder form.
Mr. Tran Viet Hoa - Director of the Electricity Regulatory Authority (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that the 2-component electricity price structure is being studied for all groups of electricity customers, including capacity price and electricity price for non-residential households and residential households.
Accordingly, the two-component electricity price mechanism is based on the fundamental principle of electricity supply costs and consumer characteristics, ensuring that when applied, it will be fair to consumers and that consumers pay the costs they cause to the system.
The project has calculated the components of long-term marginal capacity cost to voltage levels and marginal electricity cost distributed according to peak and off-peak hours.
Along with that, the two-component electricity price list fully reflects the costs of electricity production and business and regulates prices to keep the average electricity price approved by competent authorities unchanged.
The calculation results clearly show the effectiveness of the two-component electricity price when maintaining constant revenue, but many households pay more and conversely many households pay less compared to the current payment level with the same output and consumption structure.
That means that customers' electricity usage greatly affects the price they pay, forcing them to always pay attention to appropriate adjustments, bringing efficiency from both sides, electricity supply and electricity consumption.
Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan - General Director of Vietnam Electricity Group EVN said that because changing the electricity price mechanism will have a huge impact on a wide range, and at the same time, it takes time to convert facilities, organization... so there needs to be a roadmap for application in each appropriate stage.
Mr. Nguyen Minh Duc - Legal Department - Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) - said that the two-component electricity price is similar to the fixed telephone rate, which is a fixed amount called the monthly subscription fee, even if no calls are made, called the capacity price. The second part is calculated based on the amount of electricity consumed, called the electricity price.
According to Mr. Duc, the two-component electricity price mechanism accurately reflects the costs incurred to serve each customer, which are the costs of power lines, transformer stations and electricity costs.
