Tag: electricity

Vietnam’s electricity production reached 28.1 billion kilowatt-hours in March, up from 23.0 billion kilowatt-hours in February. Total output for the first quarter reached 74.7 billion kilowatt-hours, reflecting a 6.4 percent increase compared to March 2024 and a 4.5 percent year-on-year rise, according to data from the General Statistics Office.

Vietnam’s waste-to-energy (WtE) projects, widely seen as critical for addressing urban pollution and generating renewable energy, are hampered by administrative complexity, legal overlaps, and an uncompetitive pricing framework. Despite strong environmental potential, most projects take 5 to 8 years to complete, with many facing long delays, VietnamNet is quoting an ‘investor’ as saying. 

Vietnam’s electricity production has shown steady growth in the first two months of 2025. According to the latest data from Vietnam’s General Office of Statistics, the country produced 21.7 billion kWh of electricity in January 2025. In February, this figure slightly decreased to 20.9 billion kWh.

Vietnam’s electricity generation, transmission, and distribution increased by 100.9 percent in January compared to the 2019 baseline, according to Vietnam’s Industrial Production Index. However, this was lower than December 2024, when output stood at 110.0 percent above 2019 levels.

In November 2024, the country produced 23.8 billion kWh of electricity, maintaining steady output despite a slight increase in December.

Of note, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency it can take as little as five years, but also as many as 12, to build a nuclear power plant from when the first cement is poured. That said, there can also be a few years of planning that goes into the process before that.

Coverage from Dau Tu Chung Khoan notes that the cost was estimated to be VND 200,000 billion in 2009 (This is about US$7.9 billion at today’s exchange rate). In addition, the publication points out that several key issues were raised by the NA including radioactive waste management and community safety, though these do not appear to have been addressed.

The bulk of this power has been produced by burning coal which accounted for 48.7 percent, down slightly from 49.6 percent in September. Coal was followed by hydropower which provided 29.5 percent of Vietnam’s electricity supply in October.

This policy looks to be a response by the state power provider to try and increase revenue without increasing electricity prices. This comes after the state power provider ran up huge losses over the past two years by selling electricity below cost price…

The average retail price of electricity has been set at VND 2,103.1159 per kWh, excluding value-added tax (VAT). This price structure, detailed in an appendix to the decision, applies to both users and retailers and does not include VAT…

Of note, EVN has been running at a loss for some time and banking huge losses with no retail power prices increases in the four years to November 2023. For reference, the average electricity price for the world is 15.5 US cents per kilowatt-hour with electricity in Vietnam running at about 7.5 US cents per kilowatt-hour…

The bulk of this power has been produced by burning coal which accounted for 49.6 percent of Vietnam’s electricity supply in the third quarter of the year, though notably this was down from about 57 percent in the first half of the year…

Of note, the bulk of that power has come from burning coal with hydropower plants being used as back up in order to avoid the power outages that plagued the northern provinces last year. Coal production in Vietnam, however, has fallen this year by about 12.3 percent. Consequently, there has been a spike in coal imports this year of 32.7 percent by value and 16 percent by volume.