Cases of exemption from electricity operation licensing in Vietnam from February 1, 2025

Cases of exemption from electricity operation licensing in Vietnam from February 1, 2025​ (Image from the Internet)

Cases of exemption from electricity operation licensing in Vietnam from February 1, 2025

According to Clause 1, Article 33 of the Electricity Law 2024, cases of exemption from electricity operation licensing in Vietnam include:

- Organizations investing in building power generation facilities for self-use, not selling electricity to other organizations or individuals, and with installed capacity below the level prescribed by the Government of Vietnam;

- Power generation activities by organizations with installed capacity below the level prescribed by the Government of Vietnam;

- Electricity trading organizations in rural, mountainous, border, island areas purchasing electricity with a capacity smaller than the level prescribed by the Government of Vietnam from the distribution grid to sell directly to electricity consumers in rural, mountainous, border, island areas;

- Organizations operating power generation connected to the national grid exempt from wholesale electricity licenses;

- The national electricity system operation unit and the electricity market transaction operation unit;

- Urgent project items, sources of power construction works, emergency grid works specified in Article 14 of the Electricity Law 2024 are exempt from electricity operation licenses for 6 months from the start of operation and use;

Emergency electricity projects and works include:

+ Electricity projects, new builds or repairs, renovations to promptly remedy the consequences of natural disasters, catastrophes, epidemics as prescribed by construction law and other relevant laws;

+ Projects, works building power sources and connecting grids to compensate for shortage in power capacity compared to power development plans: due to delayed progress of other power source construction projects leading to electricity shortages; due to unforeseen regional or national load increases; due to the suspension of investments in other power source construction projects;

+ Projects, grid construction works with important roles in power transmission between areas to prevent grid overloads; due to urgent national defense, security requirements, or urgent needs for local socio-economic development;

- Other electricity-related activities not covered under Clause 1, Article 30 of the Electricity Law 2024.

Note: Organizations exempted from electricity operation licenses as outlined above must comply with operational management procedures, technical standards, electricity price regulations, technical and safety conditions, and obligations in the electricity sector as specified in the Electricity Law 2024.

Principles for issuing electricity operation licenses in Vietnam from February 01, 2025

The issuance of electricity operation licenses from February 01, 2025 must adhere to principles outlined in Article 30 of the Electricity Law 2024, including:

- Areas of electricity operations that require electricity operation licenses include generation, transmission, distribution, electricity wholesale, and electricity retail.

- Organizations meeting the operational conditions as stipulated by the Electricity Law 2024 are granted electricity operation licenses, except for cases specified in Article 33 of the same Law.

- No electricity operation licenses are issued for the investment phase. Investment activities in the electricity sector are conducted according to the law on investment.

- Electricity operation licenses are issued to organizations to conduct one or multiple areas of electricity operations.

- Electricity operation licenses in power generation are issued to organizations owning the power plant by project item or the entire project.

- Electricity operation licenses in transmission are issued based on specific grid management and operation scopes.

- Electricity operation licenses in distribution are issued based on specific grid management and operation scopes.

- Electricity wholesale operation licenses are issued based on specific sales areas.

- Electricity retail operation licenses are issued based on specific sales areas, except for areas where other entities have been licensed by competent authorities. When transitioning to a competitive electricity retail market, electricity operation licenses for retail are issued to organizations participating in the electricity retail market as per the retail market scope.

- Before transitioning to a competitive electricity retail market, electricity operation licenses in the retail sector are concurrently issued with power generation or distribution sectors.

- Electricity operation licenses are issued to one or multiple organizations participating in the same specific operation area and must comply with the Electricity Law 2024, Investment Law, Enterprise Law, and other relevant legal regulations.

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