VIETNAM Law and Practice Contributed by: Adam Moncrieff and Thuy Huynh, Orrick
That said, recent reforms have opened the door for private infrastructure that sits outside the traditional public transmission model. The clearest example is private wire under the DPPA regime, where a renew- able energy generator may deliver power to a large consumer through dedicated infrastructure rather than through the national grid. Those arrangements are important, but they should not be mistaken for a general right to compete with the national transmis- sion network. They are exceptions built around spe- cific commercial circumstances. The distinction matters for investors. A private wire project may be feasible, but it does not mean a private party has acquired a franchise to offer open transmis- sion services in a territory. Vietnam has not moved to that model. The public grid remains a regulated state-led system, and private infrastructure must be analysed within that context. 4.6 Transmission Charges and Terms of Service Transmission charges in Vietnam are highly regulated rather than freely negotiated. The cost of the transmis- sion system is recovered through the regulated tariff structure and through the broader electricity pricing framework, not through open commercial bargaining between every generator and the transmission owner. The transmission owner is typically EVN or EVNNTP. That keeps the system administratively manageable, but it also means potential transmission line develop- ers do not have the same freedom to shape network cost allocation as they might in a fully liberalised mar- ket. For conventional grid-connected projects, transmis- sion cost exposure is therefore usually indirect. It is reflected through the overall electricity tariff pric- ing rather than through a bespoke network access agreement on negotiated terms. For DPPA transac- tions across the national grid, however, these charges become more relevant. Parties need to understand which system charges, market fees, retail service charges or intermediary costs still sit in the transac- tion and who bears them. This is one of the key com- mercial issues in making DPPAs bankable.
The current framework is moving in the direction of greater cost transparency, but implementation remains gradual. DPPAs are one of the most impor- tant developments for corporate electricity users. The 2026 regulatory updates make DPPAs more practi- cal. Decree No 243, introduced in June 2026, clari- fied that the mechanism covers renewable energy generators, large electricity consumers and retail electricity units in industrial-zone and similar models. It also expanded eligible large consumers beyond production customers to include users such as data centres, electric vehicle charging stations and battery swapping facilities, subject to the relevant connec- tion and eligibility requirements. Circular No 29 of the MOIT in 2026 is also important. It reduced the average monthly consumption threshold for large electricity consumers using the direct transmission DPPA model from 200,000 kWh to 20,000 kWh, while keeping the 200,000 kWh threshold for the national-grid model. It also clarified the treatment of renewable plants partici- pating in virtual DPPAs as direct market participants, while plants supplying through direct transmission DPPAs are treated as indirect participants. 4.7 Open-Access and Non-Discriminatory Transmission Vietnam does not yet provide open access in the same sense as may be familiar in relation to mature or open transmission markets. Access to the grid exists, but it is firmly managed by state instrumentalities through planning, technical capacity, dispatch rules, licens- ing and the structure of the electricity market itself. A project cannot assume that satisfying one legal requirement creates a free-standing, enforceable right to transport power on demand. Access is real, but it is conditional and system-based. Generators and large users can connect to the grid if the legal and technical requirements are met, and the DPPA framework gives large users a more direct route to contractual access to renewable supply. Even so, those rights remain subject to the physical and insti- tutional limits of the system. Congestion, curtailment, dispatch instructions, metering requirements and set- tlement rules all shape what access means in practice. The non-discrimination principle is therefore best understood in context. Vietnam does not openly state
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