Applications will have to be submitted to the country’s Office of the Energy Regulatory Commission, which will also be the buyer of surplus power produced by rooftop systems.
The net metering tariff, set for 10 years, will be THB1.68/kWh ($0.052), substantially lower than the current residential power price of THB3.80/kWh. Solar system owners will also have to pay a grid connection fee of around THB8,500.
Transition from FITs to self-consumption
The scheme is part of the recently updated power development plan, which will run to 2037 and envisages renewables supplying 35% of Thailand’s energy by that point. Clean energy currently meets around 10% of demand.
According to the latest statistics released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Thailand reached an installed solar power generation capacity of 2,720 MW last year. Of that, however, only 23 MW were deployed in 2018, with most of the nation’s PV capacity installed between 2011 and 2016, when FITs were granted to large scale and rooftop projects.
In late 2017, the U.S. Agency for International Development and German development agency the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) issued recommendations to facilitate rooftop PV deployment in Thailand. GIZ Thailand said at the time, investors and end-consumers needed simple implementation guidelines to boost rooftop deployment.
From 2011-2014, the electric tariffs were divided into seven scales. Then, in 2015 the electric tariffs were reduced to six scales with a hope to make them simpler. The scales were then from 0-50 kW; 51-100kW; 101-200 kW; 201-300 kW; 301-400 kW and from 400 kW upward.
According to the EVN, a key purpose of cutting down from seven scales down to six scales is to encourage people to save electricity and use it more efficiently. From its point of view, the EVN said the six tariff scales has already taken into consideration poor households. According to statistics, if in 2015, there were 4.5 million households using less than 50 kWh per month, then in 2018 that number dropped to 3.9 million. Also in the period under review, the number of households that used less than 100kWh dropped, while the number of households using more than 100 kWh rose greatly. On average, before 2018 each household used about 156 kWh, but in 2018 the figure jumped to 180 kWh – an increase of about 13 per cent.
Through these numbers, we can see people’s living conditions have improved considerably. Based on these facts, the EVN has come up with a few scenarios for the Ministry of Industry and Trade to consider changes in calculating the electricity tariffs. A key purpose for the changes this time is to make it simpler and let people monitor the amount of electricity their families use each month.
What are the foundations for the EVN to introduce the formula “the more electricity you use the more money you pay”?
As we all know fossil fuels are getting scarce and renewable energy is not fully developed in our country. Meanwhile, the demand for energy increases an average 10 per cent per year. This is why we should use energy more efficiently. The Government has set a target that from 2019-2025, we should reduce our total consumption of electricity from 5-7 per cent and from 8-10 per cent from 2019-2030.
All in all, the EVN has encouraged all Vietnamese to use electricity more efficiently and be more thrifty.
What measures will the EVN apply to make the electricity market more competitive, including the retail market?
According to a development roadmap, the retail electricity market will be separated from the electricity distribution network after 2020 when the retail electricity market is established.
To prepare for the retail electricity market, the EVN has prepared a proposal to separate the electricity distribution sector from the electricity retail sector in the EVN.
Then from 2021 onward, we’ll start to establish a competitive market in the retail electricity market so that consumers will have their own choice of which electricity company to buy power from.
When the retailed electricity market is established, do you think the electricity tariff will drop?
Since 2017, the EVN has already separated the management cost between the distribution network and the retail market business within the EVN. At the same time, we have prepared for the launch of a retail electricity market. If all things go smoothly, we expect that in July, we will submit our detail plan to the MoIT. VNS
Read more at http://vietnamnews.vn/opinion/520387/new-electricity-tariffs-more-renewable-evn.html#LpqMSwlX08oYkxFV.99
HANOI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Vietnam has become a hot spot for energy investors eying a spend of up to $150 billion over the coming decade to meet surging power demand, with coal set to dominate despite signs of a government effort to go green.
FILE PHOTO: Power-generating windmill turbines are pictured at a wind park in Bac Lieu province, Vietnam, July 8, 2017. REUTERS/Kham/File Photo
With a population nudging 100 million and annual GDP growth around 7%, Vietnam has forecast power generation will need to rise from about 47,000 megawatts (MW) currently to 60,000 MW by 2020 and 129,500 MW by 2030.
To meet these targets the country will need to add more than neighbor Thailand’s total installed capacity by 2025 and its electricity sector will likely be bigger than Britain’s by the mid-2020s.
“Vietnam is a big growth story for the coal industry. Coal demand will be extremely strong,” said Pat Markey, Managing Director of Sierra Vista Resources, a Singapore-based commodity advisory.
Once largely reliant on hydropower, the production hub for global companies such as Samsung Electronics has turned to cheap but polluting coal to boost electricity generation.
Vietnam’s coal use in the five years to 2017 grew 75 percent, faster than any other country in the world, according to a research paper by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center on Vietnam.
The country’s current Power Development Plan (PDP 7) puts coal front and center to meet new demand.
While generation is set to double, PDP 7 forecast coal-fired generation would grow rapidly to 2030, with its share of the energy market rising from 33 percent to 56 percent.
But a change of emphasis that began in 2016 with a revised version of PDP 7 has started to embrace cheaper renewable energy, and analysts expect PDP 8, due later this year, to further adjust policy.
“One of Vietnam’s priorities is to develop renewable energy sources to gradually reduce its reliance on traditional sources of electricity to protect the environment,” Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Cao Quoc Hung said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website earlier this month.
RENEWABLE WINDOW
Facing a rapid rise in pollution, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has started to offer incentives for renewables, which so far only play a marginal role in Vietnam’s energy sector.
According to a draft law planned for June, state-owned utility Vietnam Electricity (EVN), which distributes all of the country’s power, will pay solar projects between 6.67 and 10.87 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh).
“There is very strong interest in solar due to the high level of feed-in-tariffs,” said Dieter Billen of consultancy Roland Berger.
One of the first developers into Vietnam’s solar sector has been Gulf Energy from neighboring Thailand, which this year has entered several long-term projects that will benefit from feed-in-tariffs.
Billen said there was also “growing interest in wind power thanks to attractive feed-in tariffs” of 8.5 cents per kWh for onshore and 9.8 cents per kWh for offshore facilities.
The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) in June will hold meetings in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, as it looks to drive growth in a new market.
Should government policy continue to support renewables and wind and solar become cheaper and better, Roland Berger’s Billen said renewables could even challenge coal as Vietnam’s biggest electricity source by 2030.
COAL STILL KING
But whatever the long-term plans under PDP 8, Vietnam still needs quick fixes to meet demand.
“Vietnam is a country in the midst of massive economic growth, so they will need to expand their power capacity as fast as possible at manageable costs,” said Sierra Vista’s Markey, who sees projects already in the pipeline adding an extra 2.7 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired capacity by 2020 to the 15 GW of coal-fired power already in place.
Power consumption hit a record 36,000 MW this month, close to the maximum available capacity, according to government data, while the government this week asked consumers not to set air-conditioners too low to help avoid blackouts.
The World Bank has said Vietnam needs to invest up to $150 billion by 2030, almost twice the $80 billion already spent on its power sector since 2010.
While Vietnam may struggle to finance the energy growth it needs and corruption remains a problem, businesses are anxious to enter the market.
Germany’s Siemens, one of the world’s biggest makers of gas-fired power turbines, in April signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government that outlines future collaboration.
Gregor Frank, Siemens’ Vice President for Large Gas Packages and Solution Businesses in Asia/Pacific, said the company was in “early development and financing of equity or debt” for large power projects.
In one of the country’s most recent large energy deals, a consortium around Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) in April approved a $2-billion loan for a coal-fired power plant in Vietnam.
Sabyasachi Mishra, head of mineral sales at commodities trader Tata International expects Vietnam’s annual coal imports to grow from 20 million to 30 million tonnes “in the next one year or so”, particularly with domestic reserves in decline.
In the first four months of this year, Vietnam’s coal imports more than doubled from a year earlier to 13.34 million tonnes, according to Vietnam customs data.
Markey said imports are forecast to peak at 80 million to 110 million tonnes between 2030 and 2040, against current demand of 63 million tonnes.
Such a surge would make Vietnam one of the last boom markets for what many otherwise see as a sunset industry.
Reporting by Khanh Vu in HANOI and Henning Gloystein in SINGAPORE; additional reporting by James Pearson in Hanoi and Mai Nguyen and Koustav Samanta in Singapore; Editing by Richard Pullin
Jakarta. The Batang Toru Hydroelectric Power Plant will play a key part in fulfilling Indonesia’s commitment to reduce carbon dioxide under the Paris Agreement.
The largest economy in Southeast Asia has committed to slash its carbon dioxide emissions by 29 percent by 2030, or even up to 41 percent if it receives technological assistance and funding from the international community.
The House of Representatives has ratified the agreement into law, binding the government into making an active effort to reduce at least 1.6 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.
Indonesia’s effort to curb carbon emission focuses on preventing forest and peatland clearing – the activities that emit most carbon in the country. But it also needs to shift its power generation from oil fuel and coal to renewable resources to be able to meet the commitment.
“The Batang Toru Hydroelectric Power Plant is part of the implementation of the commitment,” Firman Taufick, the vice president of communication and external affairs at North Sumatra Hydro Energy (NSHE), told the Jakarta Globe earlier this month.
Batang Toru Hydroelectric Power Plant is an independent power producer (IPP) project built by NSHE.
The company signed a power purchase agreement with state utility company Perusahaan Listrik Negara on Dec. 21, 2015.
The power plant is expected to be operational by 2022 and will supply electrical energy of 2.124 gigawatt-hour every year, contributing to 15 percent of peak load demand in North Sumatra.
Rida Mulyana, the director general of electricity at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, said Indonesia expects renewable energy to account for 23 percent of its total energy use in 2025 and 31 percent in 2050.
A member of the Supreme Consultation Forum told The Post on Thursday that he had questioned the Ministry of Mines and Energy over its position regarding a proposed project to develop a sizeable stretch of the Mekong River.
Pich Sros, president of the Cambodian Youth Party, also raised the subject of the recent increase in electricity bills despite a spate of power cuts.
Sros was speaking after a Supreme Consultation Forum attended by the Minister of Mines and Energy and the chairman of Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) on Thursday.
He said he raised a question to Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem regarding the ministry’s stance on a proposed project by the Try Pheap Group Co Ltd for developing an extensive portion of the Mekong.
He told The Post on Thursday that he was worried the development of riversides was being used as a pretext for sand dredging.
“When the sand runs out from dredging, [we] are afraid there will be no support for riverbanks and our rivers will be negatively affected,” he said.
Sros said he wanted the Ministry of Mines and Energy to conduct research on the effects of sand dredging.
Ministry spokesman Yos Monirath told The Post on Thursday that Try Pheap had made a request to the government, with Prime Minister Hun Sen instructing Lim Kean Hor, Minister of Water Resources and Meteorology, to lead a study to evaluate the project.
The Ministry had therefore yet to take a position as it was still waiting for the assessment study, Monirath said.
According to a Council of Ministers letter dated May 7, the government requested Kean Hor to discuss with the relevant institutions, Try Pheap Engineering and Construction Co Ltd “requesting a principle for permission” to study restoring the banks of the Mekong River from Kandal province’s Ka’am Samnor commune near the Cambodia-Vietnam border to Kampong Cham and Kratie provinces, and the Tonle Bassac.
Sros also asked the chairman of EdC, Keo Ratanak, whether there was a second option for electricity supply when water levels in the reservoirs of hydroelectric dams were low.
“We cannot have only one option. Power outages occurred often recently but electricity bills increased. What solution does EdC have for the citizens who have complained about this throughout the country . . . no electricity but instead increased electricity bills?” Sros asked.
Sros said Ratanak blamed the recent high temperatures and heavy consumption of electricity by the general public.
“I don’t understand this point. I have had this experience. My home did not consume a lot of [electricity] when the temperature was not hot too, but the [electricity bill] still increased.”
The director-general of the General Department of Mines and Energy Victor Zona could not be reached for comment by press time.
MANDALAY—Over 1,300 villages in rural areas of five regions will get access to electricity through solar power in fiscal 2019-20 as part of the National Electrification Project (NEP), according to the Ministry of Electricity and Energy.
The ministry will team up with the Rural Development Department overseen by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation to supply solar power, according to the deputy permanent secretary of the Electricity and Energy Ministry, U Htay Aung.
He said fees collected from villagers will cover 20 percent of the cost, with the government financing the rest from the proceeds of solar-power generation.
The 1,300 targeted villages are located in Mandalay, Magwe, Bago, Irrawaddy and Tanintharyi regions. All are more than 10 miles from the national grid and unlikely to be connected in the next 10 years, U Htay Aung said.
The NEP, which is being implemented with support from the World Bank as of 2016-17, aims to provide access to electricity to all households in Myanmar by 2030.
With a loan of US$400 million (612.76 billion kyats) from the World Bank, the project targets supplying electricity to nearly 700,000 households in over 8,000 villages by 2021.
“We have taken concessional loans from the ADB [Asian Development Bank], JICA [Japan International Cooperation Agency], KfW [German Development Bank] and World Bank,” U Htay Aung said.
Under the NEP, the Ministry of Electricity and Energy is implementing an extension of the power grid, while the Rural Development Department is implementing off-grid electrification.
The ministry will spend US$310 million on the grid extension; the Rural Development Department will spend US$90 million on off-grid electrification.
Annual electricity consumption has increased by 15 to 19 percent in Myanmar since 2017. The ministry plans to produce an additional 2,752 megawatts by fiscal 2020-21, short of the additional 4,530 megawatts expected to needed by then.
The first phase of the NEP aims to provide electricity access to over 620,000 households in some 5,000 villages within a 2-mile radius of the national grid across the country. It is scheduled to complete this work in June next year.
In the second phase of the project, which is scheduled for completion in September 2021, electricity will be supplied to villages within a 5-mile radius of the grid.
Hydropower remains the main source of electricity in Myanmar, accounting for more than two-thirds of total production, while thermal power plants produce the rest. Currently, only 41.82 percent of households across the country are connected to the national grid, according to the Ministry of Electricity and Energy.
The solar plant, on 800 acres of land between Zee Ain and Lay Pin villages on the Minbu-Ann road, will distribute the 20MW via the Mann sub-power station in Minbu township.
The solar project – which was approved in March 2016 during the government of president U Thein Sein and began construction in February 2018 – is part of the government’s renewable energy programme.
A study is being carried out in Chauk, Mindon and Minhla townships to build a wind power station, which is expected to be operational by 2021. The power it produces will be distributed across the country via the national grid.
These are the biggest renewable energy projects in Myanmar. Up to 170MW will be produced by solar power and more than 260 MW by wind power.
The solar energy project is being carried out with Green Earth Power (Myanmar) Co. The wind energy project is being carried out under an April 2017 agreement with Singapore’s Infra Capital Myanmar-ReEx Co. The contract was extended in 2018.
“Solar energy costs around K190 per unit, but it cannot be changed as the contract was signed under the previous government,” said Magwe Regional Minister of Planning, Finance and Development U Zaw Min. “The next step is to re-negotiate the price. As wind energy only became feasible recently, we can negotiate the price.
Energy production of over 30MW needs the approval of the government. Below 30MW, and it is up to regional and state governments.
Previously, experts estimated that if the production of 3300MW in 2018 is increased by 15 percent, it would be enough to cover the dry season. But as the increase was only 130MW, the blackouts continue.
To meet energy demand, the Ministry of Electricity and Energy asked the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Assembly of the Union) to approve a loan from France for the maintenance costs of hydropower plants.
About 70pc of Myanmar’s energy production comes from hydropower, 28pc is from natural gas and 2pc from coal, according to the ministry.
Almost half of the electricity generated in Myanmar is consumed by Yangon Region, while Mandalay uses 18pc. The government has set a goal of electrification for the whole country by 2030.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on May 24 approved a $7.64 million loan to support the construction of a 100-megawatt (MW) solar power park in Cambodia to help in a contribute to the development of renewable energy and diversify the power supply that can improve the country’s competitiveness.
ADB Principal Climate Change Specialist Mr. Pradeep Tharakan said that ADB’s assistance will not only help diversify Cambodia’s energy mix through solar power development, but also help the country meet its greenhouse gas emissions reductions target, as per the Paris climate agreement.
“Having reliable, sustainable, and affordable energy sources are crucial for the economic development of a rapidly expanding country such as Cambodia,” said Mr.Tharakan.
In addition to ADB’s loan, the financing package for the National Solar Park Project includes an $11 million loan and a $3 million grant from the Strategic Climate Fund, specifically through the Scaling Up Renewable Energy Program. Also included is a $500,000 technical assistance grant provided by the Republic of Korea e-Asia and Knowledge Partnership Fund to support the capacity development of Electricite du Cambodge (EDC), Cambodia’s national electricity utility, as well as the Electricity Authority of Cambodia, the national electricity regulator, in solar photovoltaic technology and solar park planning. ADB will administer these resources. The project was prepared with grants from the governments of Canada and Singapore.
