A wind farm in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan. Twenty-four wind power plants with a combined capacity of 963 MW began commercial operations in the year to August. – Photo: VNA

Last month, three wind power plants completed trial operations and were put into commercial operations, with a total capacity of 48.8 MW. The three comprised the 15.2-MW Hoa Binh 1 plant’s second phase, the 21-MW Ninh Thuan No.5 plant and the 7A wind farm with a capacity of 12.6 MW.

Meanwhile, up to 106 other wind power plants across the country, with a combined capacity of 5,655 MW, have registered with EVN to start commercial operations and feed the national grid.

There are two months left for the remaining plants to complete all preparations to begin operations before November 1, when the feed-in tariffs (FIT) scheme for wind power projects is scheduled to expire.

If the plants fail to begin commercial operations before November 1, they would not enjoy the FITs in 20 years. Instead, these projects may be subject to a price bidding mechanism, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade is working to complete this mechanism.

According to the prime minister’s Decision 39 on supporting the development of wind power, the FIT is set at 9.8 cents per kWh for offshore wind farms and at 8.5 cents for onshore ones. The prices exclude value-added taxes and are applied to a part of or the entire wind power plants put into commercial operations before November 1. The FITs will also be effective for 20 years since the commercial operation date.

Source: Saigon Times 

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