Circular 54/2025/TT-BCT amending Circular 09/2025/TT-BCT and Circular 12/2025/TT-BCT on electricity price brackets and power purchase agreement

CIRCULAR

Amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Minister of Industry and Trade’s Circular No. 09/2025/TT-BCT dated February 01, 2025, on the dossier, order, procedures, and methods for determining and approving the electricity generation price bracket; dossier, order, procedures for developing and approving the electricity import price bracket, and the Minister of Industry and Trade’s Circular No. 12/2025/TT-BCT dated February 01, 2025, on method of determining electricity generation service price; principle of calculating electricity price to implement electricity projects; main content of a power purchase agreement

Pursuant to the Electricity Law No. 61/2024/QH15;

Pursuant to the Government's Decree No. 40/2025/ND-CP, dated February 26, 2025, defining the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Ministry of Industry and Trade;

At the proposal of the Director of the Electricity Authority of Vietnam;

The Minister of Industry and Trade hereby promulgates the Circular amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Minister of Industry and Trade’s Circular No. 09/2025/TT-BCT dated February 01, 2025, on the dossier, order, procedures, and methods for determining and approving the electricity generation price bracket; dossier, order, procedures for developing and approving the electricity import price bracket, and the Minister of Industry and Trade’s Circular No. 12/2025/TT-BCT dated February 01, 2025, on method of determining electricity generation service price; principle of calculating electricity price to implement electricity projects; main content of a power purchase agreement.

Article 1. Amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Minister of Industry and Trade's Circular No. 09/2025/TT-BCT dated February 01, 2025, on the dossier, order, procedures, and methods for determining and approving the electricity generation price bracket; dossier, order, procedures for developing and approving the electricity import price bracket

1. To add Point c after Point b, Clause 1, Article 1 as follows:

“c) Point a, Clause 8, Article 51 prescribes the application of the electricity generation price bracket to power plants specified in Clause 2, Article 51, which includes small renewable-energy power plants upon expiration of the avoidable cost tariff; power plants that have entered commercial operation and reached the end of the power purchase agreement pricing period; and power plants that have reached the end of their BOT contract term and been transferred to the Government.”.

2. To amend and supplement Point a, Clause 2, Article 1 as follows:

“a) Agencies, organizations, and individuals that own power plants operating within the territory of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and connected to the national power system, except for multi-purpose strategic hydropower plants; small renewable-energy power plants subject to the avoidable cost tariff; power plants and generating sets providing ancillary services; independently invested energy storage battery systems; and power plants applying electricity purchase price mechanisms under documents issued by competent authorities;”.

3. To amend Clause 3, Article 2 as follows:

“3. Pumped-storage hydropower plant refers to a hydropower plant that uses reservoirs located at different elevations to store hydro energy and generate electricity, whereby water is pumped from a lower-elevation reservoir to a higher-elevation reservoir during periods without electricity generation to store hydro energy, and subsequently released through turbines to generate electricity when the power system requires it.”.

4. To add Clause 7 after Clause 6, Article 2 as follows:

“7. Flexible power plant refers to a thermal power plant utilizing either a reciprocating internal combustion engine system (RICE) or an aeroderivative gas turbine system (Aero-GT), featuring fast-start capability and modular, flexible configuration for electricity generation to balance capacity and maintain stability of the national power system.”.

5. To amend and supplement Clause 2, Article 5 as follows:

“2. The annually converted investment capital cost (TC) is determined according to the following formula:

 Where:

6. To amend and supplement Clause 5, Article 5 as follows:

“5. The financial discount rate i (%) shall apply the nominal, pre-tax weighted average cost of capital and shall be determined according to the following formula:

Where:

7. To amend and supplement Point a, Clause 5, Article 5 as follows:

“a) The loan interest rate r_d (%) shall be calculated as the weighted average interest rate of domestic-currency and foreign-currency loan sources and shall be determined according to the following formula:

r_d = D_F × r_d,F + D_D × r_d,D

Where:

8. To add Article 8a after Article 8 as follows:

“Article 8a. Method for determining the electricity generation price bracket applicable to other types of power plants

1. Other power plants are those falling into one of the following categories:

a) Coal-fired thermal power plants with an installed capacity of 200 MW or less;

b) Coal-fired thermal power plants in which the enterprise is wholly owned by the State and uses 100% equity to invest in the project as approved by a competent authority;

c) Coal-fired thermal power plants that use 100% domestic loans to invest in the project;

d) Small renewable-energy power plants upon expiration of the avoidable cost tariff; power plants that have entered commercial operation and reached the end of the power purchase agreement pricing period; and power plants that have reached the end of their BOT contract term and been transferred to the Government.

2. The electricity generation price bracket applicable to other power plant types specified at Points a, b, and c, Clause 1 of this Article shall be determined as follows:

a) The maximum price of the electricity generation price bracket shall be determined based on the principles for establishing the electricity generation price bracket prescribed in Clause 1 and Clause 2, Article 3 of this Circular;

b) Input parameters for calculating the maximum price of the electricity generation price bracket shall be determined based on the construction investment feasibility study report for the project as approved or the basic design of the project as appraised by a competent state agency, or on actual data from power purchase agreement negotiations (if any).

3. The electricity generation price bracket applicable to the other types of power plants specified at Point d Clause 1 of this Article shall be prescribed as follows:

a) The maximum price of the electricity generation price bracket shall be determined based on the principles for establishing the electricity generation price bracket prescribed in Clause 1 and Clause 2, Article 3 of this Circular;

b) The economic life used to calculate the maximum price shall correspond to the remaining economic life of the power plant;

c) The investment rate used to calculate the maximum price shall be determined based on the power plant’s investment costs according to the residual value of assets at the time the electricity generation service price expires or the power purchase agreement expires, plus renovation and upgrading costs (if any) approved by a competent authority or agreed upon with the power buyer. For power plants that have reached the end of their BOT contract term, the investment rate used to calculate the maximum price shall be determined based on the residual value of assets approved by the competent state agency;

d) Other input parameters for calculating the maximum price of the electricity generation price bracket shall be determined based on the actual data of the power plant as agreed between the power seller and the power buyer.”.

9. To amend and supplement Point b, Clause 1, Article 12 as follows:

“b) Parameter tables and calculation documents for determining the electricity generation price bracket, in accordance with Articles 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 8a of this Circular;”.

Article 2. Amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Minister of Industry and Trade’s Circular No. 12/2025/TT-BCT dated February 01, 2025, on method of determining electricity generation service price; principle of calculating electricity price to implement electricity projects; main content of a power purchase agreement

1. To amend and supplement Clause 3, Article 1 as follows:

“3. The provisions on determining electricity generation service price; calculating electricity price for implementing electricity projects; and the main content of power purchase agreements as prescribed in this Circular shall not apply to the following subjects: strategic multi-purpose hydropower plants; small renewable-energy power plants applying the avoidable cost tariff mechanism; independent power plants invested under the Build - Operate - Transfer (BOT) form; power plants and generating sets providing ancillary services; pumped-storage hydropower plants; independently invested energy storage battery systems; power plants applying electricity price mechanisms under documents issued by competent authorities.”.

2. To add Clause 16 after Clause 15, Article 2 as follows:

“16. P50 expectation level means the multi-year average delivered electricity value of the power plant, under which there is a 50% probability that the power plant’s actual delivered electricity over many years will reach or exceed such value.”.

3. To amend and supplement Point b and Point c, Clause 2, Article 5 as follows:

“b) Economic life: To be determined in accordance with Appendix I to this Circular, except where a competent state agency issues a document approving an economic life of the project different from the provisions of this Circular, in which case such document shall prevail (years).

For offshore wind power plants, the economic life is determined as 25 (years).

For flexible power plants, the economic life is determined as 25 (years) or determined based on the feasibility study report dossier for project investment construction as approved by the competent agency.

c) Multi-year average electricity output at the electricity delivery point (A_GN) shall be calculated as follows:

Where:

For renewable-energy power plants combined with an energy storage battery system, A_GN shall be calculated according to the following formula:

Where:

For power plant projects not using public investment capital or state capital other than public investment capital, where A_GN cannot be determined according to the above formulas, A_GN shall be agreed upon by the power seller and the power buyer on the basis of the feasibility study report dossier (or technical design dossier where it cannot be determined based on the feasibility study report dossier), consistent with the approved power plant installation parameters effective at the time of negotiation, and A_GN shall be converted to the electricity delivery point, but not lower than the electricity output value determined in such dossiers. For wind power plants and solar power plants, the P50 expectation level shall serve as the basis for determining A_GN.”.

4. To amend and supplement Clause 2, Article 10 as follows:

“2. The average annual delivered electricity and the total investment amount of the project shall be determined as follows:

a) For power plant projects using public investment capital or state capital other than public investment capital, the total investment amount and the average annual delivered electricity (based on the P50 expectation level) shall be determined on the basis of the basic design consistent with the approved installation parameters of the power plant (or the technical design here it cannot be determined based on the basic design), as appraised by the competent state agency;

b) For projects not using public investment capital or state capital other than public investment capital, the total investment amount and the average annual delivered electricity (determined on the basis of the P50 expectation level) shall be agreed upon by the power seller and the power buyer on the basis of the feasibility study report dossier (or the technical design dossier where it cannot be determined based on the feasibility study report dossier), consistent with the approved installation parameters of the power plant.”.

5. To add Clause 3, Article 22 as follows:

“3. Formulating, or hiring consultants to formulate, the ratios of major repair costs and other costs, and the ratio of labor costs for types of power plants not provided in Appendix I to this Circular, and submitting them to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for consideration and appropriate supplementation.”.

6. To amend the title of Table 03 in Appendix I as follows:

“Table 2 - Ratios of operation and maintenance costs of solar power plants and wind power plants as provided in Article 10 of this Circular.”.

Article 3. Transitional provisions

If the power seller has submitted a dossier requesting negotiation of the power purchase agreement and the parties are in the process of negotiating the electricity price before the effective date of this Circular but have not yet reached agreement or finalized the execution of the power purchase agreement, the negotiation shall continue in accordance with Circular No. 12/2025/TT-BCT, except where the power seller elects to apply this Circular for continued negotiation, in which case the power seller and the power buyer shall negotiate the electricity price in accordance with this Circular.

Article 4. Effect

1. This Circular takes effect on November 21, 2025.

2. Any difficulties arising in the courses of implementation should be reported to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for consideration, supplements and amendment accordingly./.