In 2011, the Electricity of Vietnam EVN incurred a loss of 3500 billion dong instead of 11 trillion dong as previously forecast. Analysts said that the low cost electricity from hydropower plants really have “rescued EVN.”
The Decision No 0152 approving the plan on electricity supply and national grid operation in 2011 said that 37.35 billion kwh of electricity would be mobilized from hydropower plants, while 24.72 billion kwh would be sourced from coal run thermopower plants, and 44.19 billion kwh from gas run power plants. Besides, EVN would have to use 4.73 billion kwh from the high cost oil run power generation sources, and import 4.57 billion kwh.
However, there were many differences in the implementation of the plan in 2011. Hydro power brought 41.42 billion kwh, while coal run power plants generated 18.8 billion kwh, gas turbine 39.12 billion kwh. The electricity from oil run power sources brought 1.86 billion kwh, while 4.99 billion kwh came from the imports.
As such, the supply from hydropower plants alone could provide 4.07 billion kwh more than previously expected. Meanwhile, the electricity from coal run power sources was lower by 5.9 billion kwh, and from gas thermopower plants lower by 5 billion kwh.
Analysts have pointed out that the big changes in the structure of the power sources has had big influences to the power generation and supply in 2011. The actual loss incurred by EVN in 2011 turned out to be 3500 billion dong instead of 11 trillion dong as previously planned.
The key lies in the fact that EVN could mobilize electricity from hydropower plants, the cheapest electricity sources if compared with other sources.
In fact, the principle that EVN always follows is that it prioritizes to buy electricity from hydropower plants for retailing, in order to cut down the expenses.
Prior to that, the finance report of EVN audited by the State Audit, showed that the low level of mobilizing power from hydropower plants was the main reason behind the high production costs.
Also according to the report, in 2010, if counting on all the input costs in accordance with the market prices (coal and gas), the electricity production cost of EVN would be 1320.2 dong per kwh. The figure was much higher than the 1077 dong per kwh – the average electricity sale price relevant agencies approved.
In 2010, EVN incurred the loss of 10,541 billion dong for the electricity generation and trade. It was blamed on the bad operation of hydropower plants caused by the water shortage. As a result, EVN had to use electricity from oil run power plants, and bought electricity from other sources as the prices higher by 3-4 times than the average sale price.
At MTV Can Tho thermopower plant and MTV Thu Duc themopower plant, the production cost was 3830 dong per kwh, which was higher by 3.5 times than the average sale price.
Also in 2010, the production cost of hydropower plants was just approximately to 500 dong per kwh. Especially, some hydropower plants, which have been operating for a long time, had the production cost of less than 200 dong per kwh.
Therefore, speeding up hydropower plant projects is the thing which has been catching the special attention from EVN. In 2011, a series of hydropower plants were put into operation. These included three power generation units with the total capacity of 1200 MW of the Son La Power Plant, which contributed 5 billion kwh of electricity to the national grid.
EVN hopes to mobilize 45.029 billion kwh of electricity in 2012, an increase of four billion kwh in comparison with 2011.
