Betting on wind power, investment enterprises sinks in loss

In two years 2020-2021 is a particularly successful period of Tay Nguyen region in attracting investment, if calculated according to the value of implemented projects. In which, wind power projects alone have poured into the region more than 85.000 billion VND, with many expectations about economic and social efficiency.

However, when the time for these projects ran out, Tay Nguyen was a quagmire of many backlogs and inadequacies. Projects that were able to connect to the grid in time to enjoy the government’s FIT prices were also not really successful; Missed projects have become more burdens for businesses… and many mistakes of shortcuts and mistakes are waiting to be investigated and handled.

On the axis of National Highway 14 – Ho Chi Minh Road through Dak Song district, Dak Nong province, the white wind power poles are over a hundred meters high, but completely quiet on the green mountains. For the past several months, the wind volume is more or less, these turbines still have been standing without generating electricity. Below the ground, the flattened hills still have gathered of towers and blades, but construction vehicles have almost no shadow.

Mr. Chau Van Son, Director of Dak N’Drung 1, 2 and 3 Energy One Member Limited Liability Company, said that the enterprise has invested more than 15.000 billion VND here, betting on the completion and connection before October 31. 2021 and can sell electricity for 1.928 VND/1kWh. But the company quickly realized its bet failure. By the end of October 2021, only a few wind power towers out of a total of 89 wind turbine towers have been completed. Since then, businesses have had to completely change their investment plans, from working quickly to get rich to working slowly to survive.

“After October 31, 2021, when there is no FIT price, the construction progress of enterprises is much slower. Because past the time of FIT price, if the progress is accelerated, the damage will be more, so the construction must be slowed down to reduce the construction cost, “said Mr. Son.

With the same losing bet with the deadline of October 31, 2021, Nam Binh 1 Wind Power Plant (Dak Song district, Dak Nong province) is biting its teeth to suffer a large loss. Mr. Le Van Tien, Deputy Director of Nam Binh 1 Wind Power Plant, said that the project has been completed for nearly a year, but so far the whole plant has more than 1.000 billion VND still standing. “On average, businesses still have to pay to operate the factory every month and it is estimated that the loss is 10 billion VND/month”, Mr. Tien said.

In the provinces in Tay Nguyen, Gia Lai has the largest scale of wind power with 17 projects with a total capacity of about 1.200 MW. Up to now, wind power projects in Gia Lai have also fallen into the state of “5 wins, 5 losses” when hundreds of turbines with a capacity of more than 620MW in 10 projects have slipped in FIT prices, falling into the “blanket” situation. ”, making businesses like to have ants in pants on the costs that keep piling up over time but the revenue is forever zero.

Like many wind power investors in the country, some wind power enterprises in Gia Lai said that their painful fall was due to many objective factors, such as the slowing of progress by the Covid-19 epidemic, the rigid on recognition of commercial operations related to technical testing, putting investors at risk.

However, according to Mr. Nguyen Huu Que, Director of Gia Lai Department of Planning and Investment, wind power enterprises can only blame themselves. At the time the province called for investment in early 2020, the Covid-19 epidemic was very complicated. State policies related to wind power have also been issued before for investors to research and choose. The most obvious is that under the same conditions and circumstances, there are still projects completed early, so the delays cannot be blamed on the government and policies.

“There are investors they do very fiercely, but there are investors they have problems with their internal side while the policy is common. There are investors who they come in later, start construction later but still finish on October 31, but there are construction companies sluggish when there is not enough human resources or the contract with the construction contractor does not guarantee the progress. That’s the investor’s job, not the state’s,” Mr. Que explained.

More than half of the projects fail, although it is mainly caused by the incompetence of investors and ” profits are enjoyed, losses must be borne” is the law of the market. However, the failure of wind power projects in Tay Nguyen caused more than half of the total more than 85,000 billion dong of investment to be wasted, not simply a matter of business accounting.

From the time of publicizing the investment portfolio to the time when businesses register, carry out procedures … to the end of the prescribed time, the time limit is only nearly 2 years, while the Covid-19 pandemic has been warned very early. However, the localities are still massively attracting investment and businesses are still investment risky at all costs, lining up while running. Betting thinking leads to many corollaries.