CIRCULAR

AMENDMENTS TO SOME ARTICLES OF CIRCULAR NO. 02/2017/TT-BCT DATED FEBRUARY 10, 2017 OF THE MINISTER OF INDUSTRY AND TRADE OF VIETNAM ON METHODS AND PROCEDURES FOR FORMULATION, APPRAISAL AND APPROVAL FOR ELECTRICITY TRANSMISSION PRICE

Pursuant to the Law on Electricity dated December 03, 2004 and Law on amendments to some Articles of the Law on Electricity dated November 20, 2012;

Pursuant to the Law on amendments to some Articles of Law on Public Investment, Law on Public-Private Partnership Investment, Law on Investment, Law on Housing, Law on Procurement, Law on Electricity, Law on Enterprises, Law on Special Excise Duty and Law on Civil Judgment Enforcement dated January 11, 2022;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 98/2017/ND-CP dated August 18, 2017 on functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Ministry of Industry and Trade;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 137/2013/ND-CP dated October 21, 2013 on implementation of a number of Articles of the Electricity Law and the Law on amendments to a number of Articles of the Electricity Law

At the request of Director General of Electricity Regulatory Authority,

The Minister of Industry and Trade promulgates a Circular on amendments to some Articles of Circular No. 02/2017/TT-BCT dated February 10, 2017 of the Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam on methods and procedures for formulation, appraisal and approval for electricity transmission price

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1. Clause 3 Article 1 shall be added as follows:

“3. This Circular does not apply to investors who invest in the construction of transmission grids from the distribution yard(s) of one or several power plants to transmit power generated by one or several power plants to the connection points which connect equipment, electrical grids and power plants to the national power system)and have other agreements with the electricity buyers on recovery of expenses on construction, management, operation and maintenance of the transmission grids."

2. Clauses 9 and 10 shall be added to Article 2 as follows:

a) Clause 9 shall be added as follows:

“9. Transmission network operator is the electricity unit that is granted the operation licence for electricity transmission and responsible for management and operation of national transmission grid, including:

-National Power Transmission Corporation

-Other economic components that invest in electricity transmission grids according to Law No. 03/2022/QH15 dated January 11, 2022 of the National Assembly.”

b) Clause 10 shall be added as follows:

“10. Transmission grid users are organizations and/or individuals possessing electrical equipment, electrical grids to connect to transmission grids to use electrical transmission services, including Vietnam Electricity (EVN), Power Corporations under EVN, customers who directly buy electricity from transmission system

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“2. Electricity transmission price shall be annually determined on the basis of reasonable and valid expenses on electricity transmission of the transmission network operator with the return on equity that has been determined according to the method of electricity retail price applicable at the time of calculation of electricity transmission price or the decision of the competent authority.”

4. Explanation for symbols “" and "” at Clause 7 Article 5 shall be amended as follows:

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Equity of the transmission network operators to June 30 in Year N-1 (VND). In which, the equity of the National Power Transmission Corporation is the state capital invested by EVN in the National Power Transmission Corporation for production and trade in electricity according to the financial report of the second quarter in Year N-1. The equity of other investors in the electricity transmission grids under Law No. 03/2022/QH15 is the capital to create electricity transmission assets invested in accordance with regulations of Article 6 of Law No. 03/ 2022/QH15 and relevant laws;

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Return on equity in Year N that is applicable to transmission network operator (%) and determined according to regulations of Clause 2 Article 3 of this Circular."

5. Some Clauses of Article 6 shall be amended as follows:

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"3. Method for determination of costs of labors

Estimated total costs of labors in Year N  of the transmission network operator include wage expenses and wage-related expenses which are determined in accordance with the law. Wage expenses of National Power Transmission Corporation shall be determined according to regulations of the law on management of labor, wage and bonus paid to employees and managers in wholly state-owned single-member limited liability companies; Wage-related expenses of National Power Transmission Corporation include electricity safety regime, health insurance, social insurance, employment insurance and union fees which are determined according to regulations of relevant law.

In case the total costs of labors cannot be determined according to the above case, the method of calculation of the total costs of labors shall be applied according to the following formula:

Where:

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Costs of fixed assets for transmission in year N of the transmission network operator (VND);

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Labor cost rate (%)annually disclosed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in administrative document.”

b) Point a Clause 6 shall be amended as follows:

“a) Total other monetary costs in Year N (): other monetary costs within norms, other monetary costs of incidents, taxes, fees, charges, land rental, shift meal and other costs according to regulations of the law;

c) Clause 7 shall be added as follows:

“7. In case the costs according to norms specified in Clauses 2, 4, 5 and 6 of this Article cannot be determined, the method of calculation of the total costs of overhaul and other standard costs (including costs of materials, externally purchased services and other monetary costs within norms) shall be applied according to the following formula:

Where:

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Rate of cost of overhaul and other standard costs (%) annually disclosed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in administrative document.”

6. Article 7 shall be amended as follows:

a) Clause 1 shall be amended as follows:

“1. Before November 01 every year (Year N-1), the transmission network operator shall be responsible for cooperation, formulation and submission of the document on electricity transmission price in Year N to EVN for consolidation and formulation of the electricity transmission price in year N and submission of a copy of the report to the Electricity Regulatory Authority.”

b) Clause 4 shall be amended as follows:

“4. Within 20 working days from the date on which EVN provides the valid document as prescribed in Article 8 of this Circular, the Electricity Regulatory Authority shall be responsible for appraisal and submission to the Minister of Industry and Trade for approval for the electricity transmission price in year N.”

c) Clause 5 shall be amended as follows:

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7. Some Points of Clause 2, Article 8 shall be amended as follows:

a) Point d shall be amended as follows:

“d) Descriptions and calculations of total permissible electricity transmission revenue in Year N. In which, the total permissible electricity transmission revenue of each transmission network operator shall be clearly separated

b) Point dd shall be added as follows:

“dd) Documents on electricity transmission price of transmission network operators that have been sent to EVN. The documents on electricity transmission price of transmission network operators include descriptions and spreadsheets of cost components of units as prescribed in this Circular and relevant data to determine the costs."

8.  Article 9 shall be amended as follows:

“Article 9. Electricity transmission service contract

1. The electricity transmission service contract shall be signed between the transmission network operator and the transmission grid user.

2. The transmission grid user shall pay the transmission network operator under the signed contract.”

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a) Clause 2 shall be amended as follows:

“2. The EVN shall take charge and cooperate with transmission network operators in formulation of the electricity transmission price on an annual basis in accordance with this Circular.”

b) Clause 3 shall be amended as follows:

“3. Responsibility of transmission network operators

a) Cooperate with the EVN in formulation of electricity transmission price on an annual basis according to regulations of this Circular;

b) Cooperate with the Electric Power Trading Company and relevant power delivery units in agreeing on the technical design of the system of measurement and collection of data for the delivery of electricity in accordance with regulations on electrical measurement in electricity system issued by the Minister of Industry and Trade;

c) Negotiate the electricity transmission service contract with EVN in accordance with the law;

d) Annually, build or hire the professional consultants to build the labor cost rate, the rate of cost of overhaul and other standard costs to propose the Ministry of Industry and Trade for application

dd) National Power Transmission Corporation shall negotiate connection with other investors in electricity transmission grids in terms of connection points, investment boundaries, measurement boundaries, methods of electricity delivery in accordance with regulations of the Regulation on electricity transmission system and the Regulation on electrical measurement in electricity system issued by the Minister of Industry and Trade;

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Article 2. Amendments and replacement of some phrases of Circular No. 02/2017/TT-BCT dated February 10, 2017 of the Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam on methods and procedures for formulation, appraisal and approval for electricity transmission price

1. Add the phrase “Tập đoàn Điện lực Việt Nam" (EVN) after the phrase “Đơn vị phải trả chi phí truyền tải điện" (electricity transmission price payers") at Clause 3 Article 2.

2. Replace the phrase "Tổng công ty Truyền tải điện Quốc gia" ("National Power Transmission Corporation") with the phrase "Đơn vị truyền tải điện" ("transmission network operator") in Clause 2, Article 1, Clause 1, Article 2, Clause 8 Article 2, Clause 3, Article 3, Article 4, Point b, Clause 2, Article 8, Point c, Clause 2, Article 8 and Point a, Clause 3, Article 8.

3. Replace the phrase "Tổng công ty Điện lực" ("Power Corporation") with the phrase "Tổng công ty Điện lực trực thuộc Tập đoàn Điện lực Việt Nam" ("Electricity Corporation under the EVN") in Clause 2, Article 1, Clause 1, Article 2, Clause 3, Article 2.

4. Replace the phrase "theo quy định của Tập đoàn Điện lực Việt Nam" ("according to EVN’s regulations")  with the phrase "theo quy định của pháp luật" ("according to regulations of the law") at Point a, Clause 2, Article 6, Point d, Clause 6, Article 6.

Article 3. Implementation provision

1. This Circular comes into force as of November 22, 2022.

2. In the cases where any of the legislative documents referred to in Article 1 of this Circular is amended or replaced, the newest one shall apply.

3. Any difficulty or problem that arises during the implementation should be reported to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for amendment.

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PP. MINISTER
DEPUTY MINISTER




Dang Hoang An