Regulation on Grid Connected Solar Power Investment Project | ANT Lawyers

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has recently issued Circular 16/2017/TT-BCT on project development and the model purchase contract for solar power projects.

Accordingly, the grid connected solar power investment projects are regulated as follows:

– The investor can only set up a solar power investment project included in the provincial and national level solar-power development plan; or provincial and national power development plan that are approved.

– The contents of the solar power investment project must comply with the regulations on management of investment in construction and the following requirements:

+ Evaluate the impact of solar power project connection plan on the power system in the area.

+ Having equipment connected to the SCADA system or moderation information so that the forecast information on electricity output can be transmitted per hour to the regulated agency.

– The equity ratio of grid connected solar power projects should not less than 20% of the total investment.

– The area of long-term land use shall not exceed 1.2 ha/01 MWp.

Circular 16/2017/TT-BCT takes effect on October 26th 2017.

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Super Energy Invests in 4 Solar Power Projects | ANT Consulting

The Board of Directors of Thailand’s Super Energy Corporation Company Limited (Super Energy) in late March 2020 sent a letter to the Thai Securities Commission announcing the decision to spend 456.7 million USD to set up business in Binh Phuoc, specifically into 4 solar power plant projects, including Loc Ninh 1 (200 MW), Loc Ninh 2 (200 MW), Loc Ninh 3 (150 MW) and Loc Ninh 4 (200 MW) in Binh Phuoc province (Vietnam). 

Previously, when approving this investment in the meeting on March 25th 2020, the Board of Directors of Super Energy stated that the above projects will help enhancing the business competitiveness of the enterprises. 

According to the announcement, the investment in Loc Ninh 1 is 99.7 million USD; in Loc Ninh 2 is 140 million USD; in Loc Ninh 3 is 105 million USD and in Loc Ninh 4 is 112 million USD. 

Specifically, only 72.9 million USD is planned to buy shares. Currently the first payment took place with the amount of 5.732 million USD. The remaining payments will be accompanied by detailed conditions such as when there is a land lease decision, construction permit, grid connection contract, land use right certificate, or certificate of eligibility for commercial electricity generation with the purchase price of electricity of 7.09 UScents/kWh… 

Thus, the remaining amount (383.8 million USD) is for the implementation of specific project construction.

The 456.7 million USD investment of Super Energy in 4 projects is estimated at 26.23% of the Company’s total assets. 

According to solar investors, the acquisition of projects or shares in this field is quite popular in recent years, because foreign investors want to shorten the time to process procedures in Vietnam because they are often not as fluent as the local businesses. 

Due to its experience in all fields and industries, and local understanding, many Vietnamese private enterprises have certain advantages in persuading the authorities to supplement the project that they proposed to the Power Planning when the competitive bidding mechanism to select project developers has not been applied since the Decision 11/2017/QD-TTg on solar power development, which was issued on April 2017.

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