Vietnam Enacts New Electricity Law 2024 to Boost Power Industry

The Vietnamese National Assembly adopted the Electricity Law 2024, replacing the 2004 law, and set to take effect on February 1, 2025. This new law marks a significant advancement for the Vietnamese power industry, introducing new and expanded areas of application, including renewable energy, offshore wind power, and new energy sources.

Key Takeaways:

The Electricity Law 2024 introduces the concept of renewable energy, including electricity generated from solar energy, wind energy, ocean energy, geothermal energy, hydro power, biomass energy, and other forms of renewable energy.
The new law prioritizes the development of large-scale power generation projects to form power plants clusters or renewable energy centers, and encourages wind and solar power integrated with energy storage systems (ESS) or green hydrogen and green ammonia production.
The law provides incentives for the development of offshore wind power projects, including exemption from sea area use levies and 50% reduction of levies for 12 years.
The new law governs the bidding process for selecting investors for power projects, with the Prime Minister approving IPA concurrently with investor approval for specific cases, and bidding requirements applying to other projects.
The introduction of new laws and regulations is expected to be extensive, with Decree 80/2024/ND-CP and Decree 135/2024/ND-CP expected to be replaced.
The Vietnam Electricity Law 2024 is expected to support the development of power generation projects using various energy sources and create opportunities for market players.
The law clearly states that the bidding process is the most widely used policy in selecting investors for all types of power projects when there are two or more investors showing interest in a project.
The law requires the responsibility of decommissioning and dismantling the works and plants of renewable and new energy power projects responsible to the competent entity after the construction works' lifecycle or operation term according to the Law on Construction or the Law on Investment, unless otherwise extended.
The Electricity Law 2024 serves as a specialized law that governs the power industry, establishing prevailing terms and regulating precedence application over other applicable laws in various energy-related matters.
The Prime Minister has issued Decision No. 1544/QD-TTg dated 11 December 2024, establishing the Electricity Law 2024 implementation plan, anticipated with a large number of guiding regulations.

Statistics:

The new law replaces the 2004 electricity law.
The Electricity Law 2024 has 16 chapters and 75 articles.
3 / 2024 was adopted on 30 November 2024, replacing the current electricity law of 2004.
The law takes effect on 1 February 2025.
The new law is expected to have a significant impact on the Vietnamese power industry, introducing new areas of application and expanding existing ones.
The law provides incentives for the development of offshore wind power projects, including exemption from sea area use levies and 50% reduction of levies for 12 years.
The law governs the bidding process for selecting investors for power projects.
The introduction of new laws and regulations is expected to be extensive, with Decree 80/2024/ND-CP and Decree 135/2024/ND-CP expected to be replaced.
The law requires the responsibility of decommissioning and dismantling the works and plants of renewable and new energy power projects.

Sources:

[Vnunet](https://www.vnunet.vn)
[VietNamNet](https://vietnamnet.vn)
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