Written by Partner Ngoc Anh Bui and Foreign Counsel Vaibhav Saxena

Government of Vietnam issued Decree No. 57/2025 (“Decree 57”) with effect from March 03, 2025, guiding the Law on Electricity 2024, and regulating direct electricity purchase and sale mechanism between renewable energy generators and large electricity users (“DPPA”).

Renewable Energy (RE) Generation Units

Solar, wind, ocean (including tides, ocean waves and currents), geothermal, hydro, biomass, waste-to-energy…

Electricity Traders – National Grid

• Grid-connected solar, wind or biomass with a capacity of 10MW, directly participating in the competitive wholesale electricity market.
• Large Electricity Customers: scope expanded to include the large electricity customers for production purposes or for business purposes of charging electric vehicles that purchase electricity from the Electricity Corporation (companies under EVN umbrella) or their subsidiaries and electricity retailers connected to voltage levels of 22 kV or higher.

a. Such customers are pre-conditioned for using electricity and are divided into two categories:

1. Customers using electricity for 12 months or more (purchased power minus usage), for whom the aggregate consumption average for the preceding 12 months is not lower than the said consumption in line with the wholesale competitive market norms.
2. The ones using electricity for less than 12 months, for whom the registered power output shall be based on expected consumption output purchase and should not fall below their power consumption in line with the wholesale competitive market norms.

b. Participation in DPPA mechanism: if less than 12 months then make it in year N+1. Whereas, if participating for more than 12 months then must have an average power usage (November N-1 to October end). Parameters for calculation remains the same as stated above i.e. pre-condition.

• Authorised electricity retailers, signing electricity trading contracts with RE generation units.

For the full legal update, download here.