Proposal to stop coal-fired power, create a mechanism for renewable energy!

Proposal to stop coal-fired power, create a mechanism for renewable energy!

VSEA recommends that the Government should have a policy solution that allows the private sector to participate in the construction of the power grid to relieve renewable energy capacity and reduce the investment burden for the state...

Proposal to stop coal power to develop renewable energy power

Suppressing the development of solar power will waste resources

On June 1, 2021, the Vietnam Sustainable Energy Alliance (VSEA) sent a Letter of Recommendation to the Prime MinisterGovernment asking to direct the Power Plan VIII to prioritize the implementation of power sector reform solutions to free up capital private investment in clean energy.

PRIVATE RECOMMENDATION TO BUILD ELECTRIC NETWORKS

According to the petition, restricting the development of solar power is completely against the trend of the world, missing the opportunity to attract new investment flows. The latest forecasts and recommendations of the international energy agencies (IEA) all indicate that solar power will continue to be strongly invested in the next decade. If you choose to restrict solar power, it will lead to both wasting resources and repeating the expensive lesson from the revised Power Master Plan VII about policy delays.

According to VSEA, Vietnam has a huge potential for distributed and combined solar power and is a type of energy that mobilizes investment resources very well from private businesses and people. This is in line with the Prime Minister's guiding view on promoting decentralization. Recently, solar energy has developed rapidly, with large capacity while the transmission grid is not synchronized, leading to overload, shedding the capacity of clean power sources, causing waste of investment and debt. bad. VSEA recommends that the Government should have a policy solution that allows the private sector to participate in the construction of the power grid to relieve the renewable energy capacity and reduce the investment burden for the state. To ensure system security, the operation and management of the grid is still in charge of the State.

Regarding the competitive electricity market: it is necessary to determine the progress and completion milestone. The competitive retail market is 2023, accelerate the restructuring of the system dispatching unit and the national market (NSMO) in accordance with the model's milestones. to become a competitive retail market by 2023. In addition, it is necessary to increase the flexibility of the power system by accelerating storage solutions such as storage batteries right in this period as proposed by the EVN.

This solution has many advantages: very fast frequency regulation, good power regulation, reducing congestion in transmission and distribution systems, limiting cuts in renewable energy capacity, cost of electricity production from batteries. storage is only equivalent to stored hydroelectricity. The cost of storage batteries is falling rapidly: down 80% in the past 10 years, it is forecasted that by 2030, it will decrease to about 55% compared to today.

“In power development, it is necessary to focus on breakthrough policy solutions on grid development, accelerate the completion of a competitive electricity market, and remove monopolies to free up private investment for sustainable energy development. . At the same time, resolutely remove from the planning of coal power projects that are not supported by localities, have low feasibility, and high risks," the petition stated.

COAL ELECTRICAL POWER IS ENDING

At the online seminar "Power Planning VIII: Expected Breakthroughs" organized by VSEA on May 31, 2021, Ms. Nguy Thi Khanh - Director of Green Innovation Development Center (GreenID), cum Chairwoman VSEA believes that continuing to develop new coal-fired power projects is going against the trend and very difficult to be feasible. According to Ms. Khanh, coal-fired power is becoming more and more expensive with policies to strengthen environmental protection being developed and about to be issued.

On the other hand, access to international finance for coal power projects is already difficult and is now even more difficult. Power Master Plan VIII still envisages new coal-fired power generation until 2045, while 16/34 coal power projects belonging to a specific group of projects have been behind schedule and continue to be pushed back for many more years. The continued development of coal power causes a series of social and economic consequences, increasing the burden of disease on people and pressure on the health system, creating conflicts with the aquaculture industry. and tourism, which is detrimental to the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods when exported to key markets such as the EU, the US, Japan and even China when the above countries agree to tax carbon on goods of countries using fossil energy sources.

Mr. Pham Xuan Hoe, former deputy director of the Banking Strategy Institute of the State Bank of Vietnam, pointed out the problem: many investors are stuck in capital, assets and risks to the banking system. According to Mr. Hoe, there are currently 17 coal-fired power projects planned in 11 provinces with a total capacity of 20,700 MW that are determined to be put into operation after 2025, but they have been in progress for many years behind schedule due to the inability to arrange capital. , on the other hand the local government is not supportive. Calculating the required capital investment for coal power is about 2 million USD/1 MW. Thus, with  20,700 MW, it will require  41,400 billion USD (on average, each plant needs 2.43 billion USD, equivalent to 55,890 billion VND). "While, commercial banks have the largest equity capital of about 60 trillion dong. Even the smallest coal-fired power plant with a capacity of 650 MW has invested 1.3 billion USD, far exceeding the 15% capital level. owned by commercial banks," emphasized Mr. Hoe.

The "sustainable banking development" initiative was raised by the Governor of the State Bank at the meeting of Finance Ministers and Governors of ASEAN countries, affirming that commercial banking governance is a more socially responsible enterprise. . Having to comply with international standards of ESG standards, commercial banks will not dare to invest and lend to coal-fired power projects.

Source:  vneconomy.vn

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