The Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) has just sent a petition to the Ministry of Industry and Trade proposing power price hike in 2023, citing rising costs and a loss of more than VND31.3 trillion (US$1.3 billion).

The loss is equivalent to the estimated profits made by 18 other state-owned enterprises this year, according to a report by the Commission for Management of State Capital at Enterprises.

Nguyen Duc Ninh, director of the National Load Dispatch Center (NLDC), said power producers demanded 19.8 percent more for their supply compared with last year and 36 percent more versus 2019.

Most plants want to be paid more than the current retail rate of VND1,864 per kilowatt-hour, with some even asking for VND3,000-4,000, he said.

Another difficulty was gas shortages at gas thermal power plants and there were times when the NLDC had to secure power generated from diesel at higher prices.

EVN has asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to raise retail tariffs, but no decision has been made yet.

An EVN leader told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that if an increase of 10 percent is approved, based on the group’s 2022 revenue of VND460.7 trillion ($19.5 billion), the additional revenue will be VND46 trillion ($1.95 billion).

“We had anticipated 2022 to be a difficult year, but it was far tougher than we thought,” said Do Nguyet Anh, chairwoman of the EVN Northern Power Corporation, which distributes electricity to 27 northern localities.

Her company saw costs overshoot an earlier plan by VND3.7 trillion ($156.7 million).

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