Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has requested the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) to ensure power supply for Vietnam from 2014.

Vietnam now ranks 31st in the world and fourth in the Southeast Asia in terms of electricity consumption but the quality has yet to meet demand, Hai said at a conference in Hanoi on January 4 to review the EVN’s 2013 operations and launch its 2014 tasks.

He urged EVN to devise new investment attraction mechanism as it is under financial pressure to build two nuclear power plants worth some 20 billion USD.

“Continued adjustment of electricity prices under a market mechanism is the goal of the Government. Thus, it is advisable to publicise power price- related data verified by independent auditors, instead of data produced by EVN”, he said.

EVN Deputy Director General Dang Hoang An said his group generated and purchased over 127.8 billion kWh of electricity last year, up 8.47 percent from 2012.

As of late 2013, the residential energy use rate reached 98.32 percent. The group signed contracts for the sale of electricity to 20.6 million clients nationwide.-VNA