>> Vietnam moves towards competitive energy market

The competitive power market will be introduced on a trial basis from July 1 for a tentative period of two months before it actually takes real effect, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said on Wednesday.

Workers repair the electricity cable in HCMC. The competitive power market will be introduced on July 1 - Photo: Kinh Luan

In the first two months, the ministry will launch a so-called virtual competitive power market, meaning the power prices will be determined by market forces on paper only, Vnexpress reports. In the next four or five months, the competitive power market will take its full swing, and the power price will fluctuate depending on the input cost at a given point in time.

The power regulator under the ministry said the current power price cannot compensate the input costs, with the retailing price averaging out at some 5.9 U.S. cents only. Due to the low selling price, it is extremely difficult to attract private investors into the power generation industry.

Once the competitive power market is introduced, the four segments in the industry, namely generation, transmission, supporting service and distribution, will be totally separated.

Dao Van Hung, chairman of Electricity of Vietnam Group, told reporters in Hanoi on Wednesday that the competitive market would be trialed within the group first in June before it is widely introduced nationwide.