Workers of EVN Hà Nội check power line. Upgrading power infrastructure is necessary for a competitive power market. — Photo hpe.gov.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) —  Working on regulations to oversee the competitive power wholesale market are to be completed by June 2017.

Director of the Electricity Regulatory of Viet Nam, Nguyen Anh Tuan, said at Tuesday's conference that this was part of the efforts by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) to enable the official operation of competitive power markets, which began in 2009.

"This is a prerequisite for the operation of the competitive market," Tuan stressed.

Tuan noted that the ministry asked Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN) and relevant organisations to speed the construction of infrastructure systems and information technology.

Although completed legal frameworks and infrastructure systems were critical for the successful operation of competitive power markets, these two factors remained the most difficult works, according to Tuan.

Tuan also said that developing staff who have knowledge about competitive power markets was necessary.

Tuan added that competitive power generation markets had been in operation in Viet Nam for four years.

Since the beginning of this year, the MoIT began to test the operation of competitive power wholesale markets in a first phase, in which EVN would learn to calculate competitive market-based electricity prices.

Under the ministry's Decision No 8266/QD-BTC dated in August 2015, the competitive power wholesale market will be tested during the 2016-18 period and put into official operation beginning in 2019.

Following the Government's roadmap, the competitive power retail market will operate under a pilot implementation during the 2021-23 period, while fully competitive power retail markets would become operational by 2023. —  VNS