The Ministry of Industry and Trade is considering allowing companies to buy power directly from renewable power plants instead of monopoly state distributor Vietnam Electricity.

The Direct Power Purchase Agreements (DPPA) policy will allow manufacturing companies with minimum 22-kilovolts power lines to negotiate and buy from solar and wind power plants.

In the first three years, when the policy will be trialed, the customer needs to buy at least 80 percent of the agreed power.

Solar and wind farms with a capacity of 30 megawatts or more can sign these agreements, and need to begin commercial operation within nine months of joining the pilot program.

The program, likely to start soon, will run until 2023 with a total capacity of around 1,000 megawatts. At the end of the trial period the ministry will review it, and, if happy with the outcome, will seek to make the program permanent.

Source: e.vnexpress