Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh (second from right) presents Vietnam Electricity (EVN) with the Labor Hero title on December 21, 2020. (Photo: EVN)

On December 21, 1954, President Ho Chi Minh visited the Bo Ho Lamp Factory and the Yen Phu Power Plant, a landmark moment in the electricity sector, which chose that day as its traditional day. EVN has grown enormously as Vietnam ranks second in Southeast Asia and 23^rd globally for its 61,000-MW-capacity national grid stretching from north to south serving economic activities and local daily life.

At the ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung urged EVN to become Vietnam’s major economic group and Asia’s leading energy corporation.

“Investment in the power source and grid is one of the major tasks of the electricity sector, the first of which is to fulfill the national electricity development plan by 2030 with a vision to 2050. EVN should allocate funding for certain phases to ensure national energy security in developing new power sources, with priority given to green, clean, renewable energy, and for application of advanced technology to protect the environment,” according to Deputy PM Dung.  

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung at the ceremony. (Photo: VNA)

EVN is eyeing a competitive retail electricity market in 2021 following its official run of a competitive wholesale market since 2019. The development is part of a long-term plan for Vietnam’s electricity sector which laid out the conditions and structure of the new market. The marketplace is set to be developed in three distinct parts – the power generation market, the wholesale market, and the retail market.

EVN put the competitive generation market into operation in 2012, attracting 32 electricity plants capable of generating 9,200 MW in total. The number of participating plants has reached 99 now, whose accumulated capacity reaches 27,000 MW.