Rooftop solar power: Investment stalled waiting for new electricity purchase price

TTO - After a period of rapid development, investment in rooftop solar power in the southern region is showing signs of slowing down. One of the reasons why many people worry is that electricity prices are likely to change.

Currently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has submitted a draft decision to amend and replace the Prime Minister's Decision 11/2017 on the mechanism to encourage the development of solar power projects in Vietnam.

People and businesses are hesitant

This is a locality that is booming in solar power development, but recently, according to data from Ho Chi Minh City Electricity Corporation and panel suppliers, the number of customers in Ho Chi Minh City has decreased. significantly. Many customers are still hesitant because they are waiting for the new electricity purchase price that the Ministry of Industry and Trade is submitting to the Prime Minister for approval.

Sharing at a recent conference to promote and develop rooftop solar power, Mr. Doan Minh Duy, general director of Cu Chi Industrial and Commercial Development Investment Joint Stock Company, said that businesses in the industrial park The industry has favorable conditions because it has a large roof area for installing rooftop solar power. However, many businesses are still worried that the purchase price of solar power will change, so they do not dare to invest.

Similarly, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Trung, chief of staff of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, said that this department is also hesitant about installing rooftop solar power.

"Because we do not know the new price, we cannot make a financial plan and submit it to superiors for approval. As a state agency, we do not have initial investment capital and need a plan. Only with a specific project can we ask for public investment. All stages have been prepared, the only problem is the price so we can do it" - Mr. Trung said.

Mr. Trung added that after the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training installs it, it will be expanded to the school system in the city. Ho Chi Minh City has many schools, so when schools are installed synchronously, it can create a large capacity power supply.

Not only schools, production facilities... but many people in the Southwest region are also anxiously waiting for the newly issued purchase price to calculate installation. Mr. Le Quoc Nam, Cai Rang district, Can Tho city, said his family invested nearly 120 million VND to install solar power equipment with a capacity of 5.5kWp.

After two months of completing the installation and the family sold electricity to the electricity company, but because the installation was after June 30, the electricity index is still being recorded by Can Tho Electricity Company to wait for a new electricity price. pay later (according to regulations, cases of solar power installation before June 30 can buy 9.35 cents, but after this time, they must wait for new regulations on electricity purchase price - PV).




"I'm very worried about what the new electricity price will be. I hope the new solar power price is equal to or higher than the old price so that people can feel secure and continue to support the policy of developing solar power" - Mr. Nam said. .

Installation customers dropped sharply

According to Ho Chi Minh City Electricity Corporation, by the end of August 2019, the city had 3,923 customers installing solar power on the roof, the installed solar power capacity reached 44.56 MWp. Of these, 3,829 customers have connected to the grid and registered to sell excess electricity to the electricity industry. The total amount the company has paid to customers is over 4.7 billion VND.

From July 1 until now, for rooftop solar power system investors wishing to connect to the grid, power companies in Ho Chi Minh City are still implementing grid connection as before the 30th. -6. Every month, power companies still record the amount of electricity generated on the grid. However, because there are no regulations on the purchase price of electricity generated on the grid, solar power purchase contracts cannot be signed and payments with investors have not yet been made.

In fact, through monitoring, the number of grid-connected rooftop solar power systems in August decreased significantly compared to the peak in June. Specifically, in Ho Chi Minh City in June, there were 856 solar power projects connected to the grid. grid with a total capacity of 11.01 MWp, but in August the number of projects decreased to 557 (a decrease of 35% in the number of projects and a decrease of more than 50% in capacity).

Similarly, a representative of the Southern Electricity Corporation (in charge of 21 southern provinces) said that currently the total grid-connected solar power capacity that people sell to the company is about 150MWp. Also according to this representative, recently the number of customers registering to install rooftop solar power has shown signs of slowing down due to problems with new electricity purchase prices that have not yet been issued.

"Vietnam Electricity Group has proposed to keep the old electricity purchase price unchanged to encourage people to install and create fairness for those who install first and install later" - the above representative shared.