EVN Moans US$187.5 Mln Losses
State-owned Electricity of Vietnam Group (EVN) said that it is losing VND3 trillion (US$187.5 million) due to disparities in power buying and selling prices.
EVN is currently buying 1,500 MW power from Ca Mau power plant of state-owned oil monopoly PetroVietnam at a price of seven U.S. cents per kWh for January of 2008 and at eight U.S. cents for February this year, but is selling averagely at around 5 U.S. cents per kWh.
EVN moaned that EVN makes profits for its power generation but makes losses for power purchases.
EVN’s statistic said that prices of a kilowatt hour of power bought from Independent Power Projects (IPPs) was VND1,056 (6.6 U.S. cents) with transmission and distribution fees included, and the rates of Chinese-sourced power reach nearly VND1,100 per kWh (6.87 U.S. cents including transmission fees).
However, EVN is pricing averagely a kilowatt hour of power at only VND852 (5.32 U.S. cents), which means that the more EVN buys electricity, the bigger losses it will face.
The group also complained about considerable increase in input costs that are estimated at minimal VND900 billion (US$56.25 million) due to petroleum price soar.
EVN bought around 33.44 billion kWh of power from IPP and BOT sources, and joint stock companies last year, accounting for 49.73 per cent of its total output.
The group is estimated to purchase half of expected 77 billion kWh output this year.
EVN has recently proposes to raise the power retail prices to VND917 (US$5.73 U.S. cents) instead of VND890 (US$5.56) early approved by the government to apply from July 1 this year; however, the Vietnamese government has not yet considered or decided power price hikes for presence for the sake of inflation curb. (VietNamNet, Saigon Liberation)
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