HÀ NỘI — Deputy Prime Minister Trịnh Đình Dũng has asked Electricity of Việt Nam (EVN) to develop green power with prices people can afford, adding that the transparency in power pricing must be improved.

Stressing the important role of EVN in power supply, Dũng said at a group conference yesterday that it was critical to restructure power supply sources to meet the electricity demand for socio-economic development.

Developing green power to replace energy that produced pollution was a solution to many problems, Dũng said, urging EVN to map out plans and resources to achieve this aim..

In addition, he said the group must hasten restructuring to enhance management and competitiveness.

Dũng asked EVN to complete the equitisation of Power Generation Corporation No 3 in the first half of the year, and of the two remaining power generation corporations later.

Việt Nam’s electricity demand is expected to increase significantly in coming years. On average, power demand is likely to increase by 10 per cent annually by 2030.

Under national power development planning for the 2011-20 period, total power generation capacity is expected to reach 60,000 MW by 2020 and 96,500 MW by 2025.

The Deputy PM said the power sector was encountering many challenges to meet the rapidly increasing power demand as well as the requirements of environmental protection. At the same time, financial resources for new power projects was limited.

Dũng said focus should also be placed on implementing major projects to meet power demand, safely operating hydro-power plants, saving natural resources and protecting the environment.

Võ Quang Lâm, EVN’s deputy director general, said that the group would ensure sufficient power supply in 2018 if no unusual situations occurred.

EVN planned to produce and buy a total of 210.49 billion kWh electricity in 2018, an increase by 9.38 per cent over the previous year.

The power-loss rate would be reduced by 0.27 percentage points to 7.2 per cent.

The group also hopes to improve its ranking by the World Bank’s Doing Business report from 64th out of 190 countries and terrioties in 2017 to 60th this year.

The group also wants the Ministry of Industry and Trade to push up the implementation of power projects outside EVN and to direct Việt Nam National Oil and Gas Group, Việt Nam Gas Corporation, to ensure gas supply for producing power.

According to EVN, the group produced and bought a total of 192.45 billion kWh in 2017, up 8.6 per cent over 2016.

Its 2017 revenue reached nearly VNĐ293.2 trillion (US$12.9 billion), representing a rise of 8.94 per cent.

The group now sold electricity directly to 25.6 million customers. — VNS