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LEGAL ALERT

WHAT'S NEW:

Background On March 19th, 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (“MOIT”) has submitted an Official Letter No. 1931/BCT-DLdated March 19th 2020 and Official Letter No. 3299/BCT-DL dated May 08th 2020 on proposal to supplement a numberof wind power projects to the power plan as a countermeasure to potential national power shortage due to the slowprogress of investment and construction of a number of coal thermal power plant with high capacity with theschedule to put into operation until 2023. In particular, the MoIT has proposed the Prime Minister the following:

The Prime Minister has concurred

with supplementing wind power

projects to the Power

Plan

To agree in principle to adjust the wind powerdevelopment target to 2025 with a capacity of11,630 MW to ensure sufficient power supply and  backup power source development in case ofhigh load, inclement weather conditions or ifother sources are behind schedule.

To review the decision on supplementing windpower project’s connection plan and theconditions for capacity clearance.

To review the supplementation/accelerating theprogress of synchronous transmission gridprojects in order to sufficiently utilize fullcapacity of those projects mentioned in theproposal lists.

To assign People's Committees of provinceshaving wind power projects to urgently reviewland use zoning/planning and other plansaccording to their competence to carry outprocedures for land use conversion for powerprojects and to determine which areas of loweconomic value with potential for renewableenergy development to prioritize.

To assign the MoIT to coordinate with the Provincesand cities People Committees in accelerating, in-specting and supervising renewable energy project-s, especially wind projects that had been supple-mented with planning. In case the projects are notimplemented as approved, the project will be re-solutely proposed to be revoked to avoid affectingother projects inthe process of con-sidering add-itional planning and connecting to the nationalelectricity system.

Wind power projects that have not beensupplemented with power development planningin this period will continue to be considered,studied and appraised to be supplemented in theAdjusted Power Plan VII if they are eligible orconsidered and balanced in Power  Plan VIII.

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Promptly handle the submitted proposals on windprojects supplementation, as the basis to review andconsider the potential areas that not only have fewerprojects currently, but also have the potential to developwind power projects effectively and quickly to meetnational power demand;

Fasten the process of drafting the National PowerDevelopment Plan period 2021-2030 vision to 2045(Power Plan VIII) and submit to the Prime Minister beforeOctober 31st 2020 for consideration and approval;

Promptly review and report to the Prime Minister forapproval of the proposal on extending the Feed-In-Tariff(“FIT”) price for wind power projects as directed by theOfficial Letter No. 3913/VPCP-CN dated May 19th 2020.

Response of the Prime Minister In response to such official letters of the MoIT, on June 9th2020, the Prime Minister has issued an Official Letter No.693/TTg-CN. Accordingy, the Prime Minister agrees, ingeneral, with the proposals of the MoIT as mentioned above. Also, by the Official Letter 693 above, the Prime Minister hasassigned the MoIT to:

What’s next? Generally speaking, the fact that the Prime Minister agrees inprinciple with the proposal of the MoIT could be understoodthat the wind power projects in the Official Letter 1931 of theMoIT should be approved into relevant power developmentplans. However, because the Prime Minister has assigned the MoITin reviewing the projects, the supplementation of theprojects into the power development plan should beconsidered under case-by-case basis, instead of the fact thethe MoIT shall approve all the projects into the relevantpower development plans. Moreover, because at the moment, the MoIT is preparing theNational Power Development Plan VIII (“PDP VIII”) under Lawon Planning 2017, the MoIT might need to consider thesupplementation of wind power projects to ensure thecompatibility and the compliance with such PDP VIII.

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