Energy providers blame blackouts on low-cost of energy while consumers could see a rise in prices for power.
Government officials from the Ministry of Industry and Trade met on July 6 to discuss implementing tasks for the second half of 2010.
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| Are the power shortages due to power prices? (Illustrative photo) |
As part of the meeting, blackouts, which are expected to continue, were said to be occurring due to the fact that power companies are using all available electricity resources to meet demands while handling problems involved in maintaining the stable operation of power plants.
Thus, the meeting focused on providing enough electricity for manufacturing and exporting in order to realise the economic growth goal of 6.5% in 2010.
Tran Xuan Hoa, General Director of the Vietnam National Coal-Mineral Industries Group (TKV), proposed a plan under which coal mines would be equipped with their own power systems aimed at ensuring coal production in case national electricity grids fail and the power is cut off.
In Vietnam, people suffer when power is not sufficient, especially during hot summers.
Dao Van Hung, Chairman of Vietnam Electricity (EVN) explained the reason for power shortages is that the average power price in Vietnam was so low that investors were not interested because of low returns. Other power manufacturers agreed with the opinion of EVN saying that energy fees must be raised.
Currently, the average power price is nearly VND1,059 (5.3 cents)/kwh, which is much lower than the price in other countries of the region. According to Hung, investors would benefit only if the price was over VND1,598 (8 cents)/kwh.
Additionally, Hung shared that EVN suffered from a loss of VND4.7 trillion ($243,556,000) over the past 6 months. The situation of lacking power is not attributed to only EVN as they provide energy for 47% of the nations 40 power plants.
