EVN suffers loss of 6.5 trillion dong in first 7 months due to diesel generation

The report of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in October showed that due to using diesel for power generation, Vietnam’s state-owned electricity monopoly Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) suffered around 6.5 trillion dong loss in the first seven months of this year, according to the newspaper Thoi Bao Kinh Te Vietnam on November 16.

Once this information was published, there were many different opinions about the number of huge losses of EVN, including skepticism about the true nature of the loss entirely caused by “diesel generators”?

However, Dang Hoang An, deputy general director of EVN explained that, just make a simple calculation to compare the price of electricity output of around 1,000 dong/kWh compared to the oil price of about 15,000 dong per liter (producing nearly 5kWh of electricity), people will know just how much profit and loss EVN could make.

According to An, many natural disasters this year have had a major impact on hydropower plants, so the state-run corporation was short of nearly 7 billion kWh of hydroelectric power. Therefore, in the first half of this year, the diesel generation was a force majeure for EVN, because otherwise, Vietnam would not be able to ensure sufficient power for living, production, and industrial parks.

Meanwhile, the electricity price is now just at 550 dong/kWh, not enough to buy vegetables, then how can the electricity sector make profit? Currently, the relevant ministries are developing plans to increase electricity prices, but it also must be carefully calculated basing on the script for next years and the whole economy, said An.

An added: “How much power price will depend very much on the picture of the power energy of the power generation sector. For instance, last year we attempted to balance the electricity price calculation scheme of 31 billion kWh hydropower, but the reality capacity was only 26 billion kWh of hydropower, so the earnings were not enough to cover all the costs”. – TBKTVN

Tags: EVN