electricity

Vietnam has secured its first funding under the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), with the French Development Agency (AfD) providing €67 million to the National Power Transmission Corporation (EVNNPT) for major transmission projects, VN Express has reported.

The Vietnam power market was valued at US$17.97 billion in 2024 and is forecast to grow to US$26.76 billion by 2032, with a CAGR of 5.1 percent from 2026 to 2032, according to Verified Market Research.

Coal remained Vietnam’s dominant power source in the first four months of 2025, accounting for over 57 percent of total generation, according to new data from Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN). Despite ongoing investment in renewables, hydropower and solar each contributed less than one-fifth, underscoring the country’s continued reliance on fossil fuels during the dry season.

The average retail electricity price in Vietnam will rise from VND 2,103.11 to VND 2,204.07 per kWh, a 4.8 percent increase from today, according to a press release from state power provider Electricity Vietnam (EVN). The move has been driven by rising input costs—notably coal, gas, oil, LNG, and the exchange rate—with low-cost hydropower only expected to supply 25 percent of total demand in 2025, the release says.

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…