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Tag: clean energy

  • Vietnam’s renewable energy sector in a state of flux

    Vietnam’s renewable energy sector in a state of flux

    Vietnam’s renewable energy sector is experiencing an unprecedented surge in project activities and policy changes, making end results unpredictable.

    The surge in activity includes project approvals as well as project transfers to technically experienced and financially capable developers, which is a positive trend, but whether it can fulfill the nation’s renewable energy potential remains to be seen.

    Among the significant policy developments that have taken place of late is the temporary suspension of approval for additional solar power projects (SPPs).

    The Office of the Government has issued Notice No. 174 requesting the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) to suspend approval of additional SPPs pending, in turn, the approval of a national master plan for the development of solar power (Solar PDP).

    The MOIT has been tasked with formulating and presenting a new Solar PDP to the Prime Minister.

    Notice 174 states that over 70 solar power projects with a total registered capacity of 3GW approx have been approved within relevant master plans (noting a planned capacity of 850MW for up to 2020 under the Power development plan 7).

    Pending passage of the new master plan for solar power development, only projects that have been appraised by the MOIT (50MW or less) and those that have already been presented to the PM (above 50MW) will be considered for approval.

    Other solar projects, including those being appraised by the MOIT, regardless of their registered capacity, shall be deferred and considered for inclusion in the national solar master plan.

    The impact of this suspension has been seen in the market, where the selling side has tended to mandate higher prices for their project development efforts. It has also reminded market players to be prepared to accommodate potential policy uncertainties, twists and turns in their dealings.

    FIT developments

    Another area of primary interest in the sector has been in the Feed in Tariff (FIT) deadline for SPPs.

    To further promote socio-economic development, Deputy PM Vuong Dinh Hue has instructed the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) to draft a Government resolution proposing a special regime and policy, including a potential extension of application of Decision No.11/2017 (Decision 11) on FIT for SPPs in Ninh Thuan Province.

    The draft document (No. 4545 dated July 4, 2018) submitted by the MPI to the Government Office has been reviewed.

    The Government Office has since issued a notification (No. 7108 dated 26/07/2018) saying Decision 11, which provides for a FIT of US cents 9.35/kWh, will not be extended.

    However, a PM Decision on extension of commercial operation date (COD) till 2020 for Ninh Thuan province up to a capacity of 2000 MW (AC) is expected.

    In order to support the next policy consideration, the MOIT has issued a document (Official Letter 5735) requesting relevant Government bodies and their units to assign a cadre to participate in the working group to draft a decision amending Decision 11 and another draft decision to develop bidding mechanisms for the solar power sector. These are to be submitted to the PM for his consideration.

    It is to be noted that post June 2019 solar power projects may expect a lower FIT rate of approx 7.6 US cents/kWh. The authorities are further considering formulating a special provincial plan to support investments in the two key provinces of Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan, which are attracting huge investor interest for solar power projects.

    This guideline on the application of Decision 11’s FIT, together with the potential for system overload if the transmission system is not updated in time, will present a significant technical challenge for Vietnam Electricity (EVN) and MOIT in accommodating the policy.

    This will also be true of piloting direct Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and upcoming policy changes.

    Rooftop projects

    In relation to rooftop solar power projects, national utility EVN, the sole power distributor in the country, issued a document (EVN Official Letter 1337) on March 21, 2018 guiding the temporary implementation scheme for rooftop SPPs with capacities equal to or less than 1MW, pending the issuance of an official guidance document by the MOIT and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) on payment and invoicing structure.

    The prevailing regulations provide for a net-metering scheme for rooftop SPPs. Under this, credit for surplus electricity (over direct consumption) generated can be transferred to subsequent payment cycles, and the excess electricity generated can be sold to EVN at the rate mentioned in the PPA signed by the seller and EVN either at the end of the relevant year or upon termination of the agreement.

    The MOIT Circular 16, issued last year, requires a solar power generator, as the seller, to enter into an appendix to the Model PPA in place with EVN or its authorized subsidiary. The model appendix is provided under Annexure 3.2 of Circular 16.

    However, according to EVN OL 1337, the appendix will not be applied until the MOIT and the MOF issue further guidance on the finalization, payment scheme and invoicing mechanism for such net-metering purposes.

    Offtake limitations

    Under current regulations, EVN is required to offtake the entire power output of solar and wind power projects.

    However, EVN already anticipates significant challenges to honoring this requirement, especially in areas with high concentration of solar and wind power projects with limited transmission capacity, even with the proposed system update expected by the end of 2019.

    EVN has reported such challenges to the MOIT, and the latter has issued a document (OL 3943 dated May 21, 2018) that requires the following:

    – EVN to instruct its affiliates to formulate grid connection agreements (GCA) for projects that may be able to dispatch power to the national transmission system without causing system overload;

    – EVN to review and consider (i) dispatch capacity of the system, and (ii) potential conditional GCA for projects that may cause system overload. Developers and operators may be required to reduce power output and suspend operation of their plants as requested by EVN’s operators to avoid system overload and comply with technical requirements under MOIT’s Circular 30/2015 and Circular 25/2016.

    – EVN to prepare and present to MOIT in the third quarter of 2018 a plan for investment in a transmission system able to take dispatch of renewable power projects after 2020.

    These MOIT instructions may result in potential deviations from the model power purchase agreements. EVN’s offtake obligation and such deviation would certainly add another significant item to the list of bankability issues for projects without executed PPAs and GCAs.

    It is expected that such issues would be further considered in the process of amending Decision 11 and related regulations.

    Stakeholders in projects with executed PPAs and GCA would be well advised to ensure closer monitoring and coordination with EVN to minimize impacts and disruptions.

    Increasing wind power FIT

    The MOIT has proposed to the PM an amendment (Draft decision) to Decision 37/2011 to increase FIT for wind power projects from the current 7.8 US cents/kWh (onshore).

    The amended draft decision will increase the FIT equivalent to 8.77 US cents/kWh (onshore) and 9.97 US cents/kWh (offshore), based on the SBV’s exchange rate of $1 equivalent to VND21,896 (announced on January 4, 2016) and subject to fluctuation.

    This potential increase is an effort to fix one of the most notable issues with wind power development regulations in Vietnam. The FIT under the draft decision shall apply to projects achieving COD before January 1, 2021.

    To sum up, although Vietnam has an advantage in terms of abundant resources, whether or not it will be able to tap its full potential remains to be seen.

  • Jokowi Opens Indonesia’s First Wind Power Plant

    Jokowi Opens Indonesia’s First Wind Power Plant

    As President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo inaugurated Indonesia’s first wind power plant in Sidenreng Rappang, South Sulawesi, on Monday (02/07), the government is getting closer to its ambitious target of obtaining more than a fifth of the country’s energy from renewable sources.

    The plant, also known as PLTB Sidrap, consists of 30 wind turbines which can produce up to 75 megawatts and electrify 80,000 households. The turbines in 40 percent consist of locally produced components.

    “This puts Indonesia among the few Asian countries that posses wind power plants, like Japan, China and Korea,” Jokowi said in a statement.

    Sidrap started its development in 2015 with $150 million borne by a consortium comprising of UPC Renewables Asia I, UPC Renewables Asia III, Sunedison and Binatek Energi Terbarukan.

    A similar project in Bantul, Yogyakarta, also developed  by UPC Renewables, was shelved in 2017 due to land clearance problems.

    Jokowi seeks to connect 99 percent of Indonesians to the country’s grid by 2019, when his first presidential term ends. Currently, the electrification rate is 96 percent.

    Indonesia aims to have 23 percent of its total power coming from renewable resources by 2025, also to fulfill its climate change mitigation commitment, in accordance with the Paris Agreement.

    Today, only 14 percent of the country’s energy is clean. More than half of it still comes from coal-powered plants.

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  • Southeast Asia’s largest solar project to be built in Vietnam

    Southeast Asia’s largest solar project to be built in Vietnam

    Vietnamese construction firm Xuan Cau and Thailand conglomerate B.Grimm have teamed up to build Southeast Asia’s largest solar power plant in Tay Ninh Province.

    The signing of the joint venture agreement in Bangkok was witnessed by the prime ministers of both countries.

    The $420 million, 420MW project is set to be commissioned in June 2019, said Preeyanart Soontornwata, CEO of the B.Grimm Power Public Company.

    With Vietnam’s electricity demand growing significantly, B.Grimm estimates that the project will eventually account for 30 percent the company’s total income.

    Solar power currently accounts for 0.01 percent of the country’s total power output, but the government plans to increase the ratio to 3.3 percent by 2030 and 20 percent by 2050.

    Vietnam depends largely on hydropower and thermal power plants for its electricity demands, but the projects have often drawn criticism from both local and international communities due to environmental concerns.

    Vietnam is aiming to produce 10.7 percent of its electricity through renewable energy by 2030, mainly through solar and wind energy.

    Earlier this month, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that Vietnam aimed to increase the number of households using solar energy from the current 4.3 percent to 26 percent by 2030.

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  • Time to get serious about saving energy

    Time to get serious about saving energy

    A tax will never be welcome, but it can be timely. The carbon tax that Singapore will levy on large polluters from next year is one such example.

    The tax – details of which were announced yesterday by Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat – comes against a backdrop of rising temperatures and increasingly erratic weather.

    Last year was Singapore’s warmest year on record – excluding years influenced by El Nino, a weather phenomenon associated with hot and dry weather in this part of the world. The Republic is also experiencing more bouts of intense rainfall – such as the one on Jan 8 that led to flash floods in its eastern parts.

    That these effects can already be felt here highlights the urgent need for action. And a carbon tax is one direct way to tackle climate change – by trying to get large polluters to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

    Singapore’s introduction of a carbon tax is also in line with carbon pricing strategies adopted by other countries to reduce greenhouse gases.

    As Singapore marks its Year of Climate Action this year, its move to get ready for the roll-out of the carbon tax next year shows how serious it is in tackling the global threat of climate change.

    About 67 countries and jurisdictions, including China, the European Union and Japan, have implemented or announced plans to implement carbon pricing schemes, which incentivise emitters to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy efficiency.

    In Singapore, the carbon tax will initially be set at $5 per tonne of greenhouse gas emissions until 2023, although the plan is to increase this to between $10 and $15 per tonne of emissions by 2030.

    This will be levied on the 30 to 40 companies responsible for the lion’s share of emissions here, but households will experience a knock-on effect – a 1 percentage point increase in total electricity and gas expenses on average, Mr Heng said.

    As the implementation of the carbon tax next year follows the full liberalisation of the retail electricity market in the second half of this year, households will be able to choose which retailer they wish to buy electricity from.

    Professor Euston Quah, head of the economics department at the Nanyang Technological University, said competition will put pressure on energy retailers to keep their prices competitive by not passing on the full cost of the carbon tax to consumers.

    The impact of the carbon tax will also be cushioned by the additional utilities rebates that eligible HDB households will get from next year to 2021.

    This gives consumers some time to form energy-saving habits, which could include turning off power at the socket when appliances are not in use, or using more energy-efficient appliances.

    The introduction of the carbon tax is a timely move which reminds both companies and individuals that it is time to get serious about saving energy.