From May, households in Ho Chi Minh City will be able to sell to the grid any excess electricity generated by solar panels installed on their roofs.

The Ho Chi Minh City Power Corporation (EVN HCMC) on Thursday signed its first solar power purchase agreements with residents in District 1 and District 3.

Accordingly, excess power generated by these households’ solar panels will be sold to the grid for VND2,143 (9.35 U.S. cents) per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

Over 1,400 solar roof systems in Ho Chi Minh City are already connected to the grid with a total installed generation capacity of 17.46 megawatt-peak (MWp), according to Nguyen Ngoc Tuong Vi, acting head of sales at EVN HCMC.

In reality, these households can add over four million kWh in capacity to the grid, Vi said.

“This will help increase clean energy output on the national grid,” she added.

EVN HCMC expects to finish signing power purchase contracts with all households with solar panels on their roofs in the southern metropolis by the end of May 2019.

These contracts will be valid for 20 years, with money from sale of generated electricity being transferred directly to customers’ bank accounts on a monthly basis.

Revenue from selling solar power will be taxed, but only at a mere rate of two percent, if it exceeds VND100 million (US$4,300) a year.

For enterprises, a ten-percent tax is applicable and deduced directly from their income from selling solar power to the grid.

Vietnam is targeting 50MWp in installed solar power capacity by the end of 2019, Vi said.

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