Electricity Law 2024 marks a significant shift in electricity sector management, emphasizing decentralization, administrative simplification. Accordingly, the law removes licensing requirements for electricity consulting services and clarifies licensing conditions for each sector. To implement the Electricity Law 2024, on 04 March 2025, the Government issued Decree 61/2025/ND-CP, which details the conditions, procedures, authority for granting, exemptions, revocation, validity period, and other related aspects of electricity operating licenses ("Decree 61").

Under the Electricity Law 2024, electricity operating licenses are mandatory for the following sectors: power generation, electricity transmission, electricity distribution, wholesale electricity, and retail electricity. In particular, "wholesale" and "retail" electricity have been defined in Clause 3 and Clause 4, Article 4 of the Electricity Law 2024. However, other activities such as electricity generation, transmission, and distribution, have not yet been defined.

1. Conditions for obtaining an Electricity Operating License

To obtain an electricity operating license, an enterprise must meet general conditions under Article 31 of the Electricity Law 2024. Additionally, specific conditions apply depending on the activity.

For electricity generation, an enterprise must satisfy the following conditions:

1.1. Have a team with at least 01 technical manager who has at least 05 years' experience in the field of electricity generation and possesses a bachelor's degree in: electrical engineering, electrical engineering technology, electronics, automation, or other engineering and technology fields; and at least 04 operators who are trained and tested to meet the requirements for operating power plants according to the provisions of dispatch and operation of national power system; trained and tested to meet the requirements for electrical safety and the qualifications under Decree 61;

1.2. It has electricity generation work items or works which conform to the power development planning and electricity supply network development scheme in the provincial planning, plan to implement PDP, plan to implement provincial planning;

1.3. It has projects which have investment guidelines decided or approved by competent authorities, except for the cases where the investment guidelines for such projects do not require approval;

1.4. It has decisions approving the results of the EIA report for projects subject to EIA;

1.5. It has projects where the land areas/ marine waters are allocated or hired out by the competent authorities;

1.6. It has electricity generation work items or works which have the fire safety acceptance results approved by competent authorities accordance with regulations of Law on Fire Prevention and Fighting; and

1.7. It has electricity generation work items or works that are constructed and installed according to the approved design and meet the conditions for putting work items or works into operation.

For rooftop solar systems used for self-production, self-consumption, and selling surplus electricity to the national grid or through direct power purchase agreements, projects with an installed capacity of less than 10 MW are exempt from condition (a) regarding personnel requirements. This exemption is intended to optimize resources and support small-scale projects.

2. Electricity Operating Licenses

2.1. The validity period of an electricity operating license for power generation is 20 years. If a license is amended or renewed, the new license follows the validity period of the previous one.

2.2. A license may be issued for a shorter period if:

(a) The remaining operational period of projects, electricity generation works, is shorter than 20 years, issued according to the remaining operational period of projects, electricity generation works;

(b) In cases where a work items or works are subject to conditional acceptance before putting the work items or works into operation; or a constituent of the works which is completed and meets the conditions into temporary operation in accordance with the construction law;

(c) According to actual conditions of electricity work items, electricity wholesaling and retailing schemes, the licensing authority may issue electricity operating license for power generation with a term shorter than 20 years;

(d) Except for the three cases mentioned above, a license may be issued with a shorter duration than the prescribed term, upon the request of the licensed organization, as follows:

(i) In the case of new issuance: For power generation licenses, the organization may request a license term shorter than 20 years;

(ii) In the case of renewal: The renewal term shall not exceed the time of transfer of the assets or power facilities, or the time the project ceases operation. If the organization requests a shorter term, the license shall be renewed accordingly.

2.3. Electricity generation facilities under 1 MW that sell electricity are exempt from licensing requirements. Additionally, any self-sufficient electricity generation work which does not sell electricity shall also be exempt from obtaining an electricity operation license, under the following conditions: There is no upper limit on the generating capacity scale for the project that is not connected to the national power system; or The installed capacity is below 30 MW for the project connected to the national power system.

3. Licensing authority

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) and the Provincial People's Committee are the competent authorities for granting electricity operating licenses:

(a) The Electricity Authority, by authorization of the MOIT, shall issue licenses in the following cases:

(i) Electricity generation activities of nuclear power plants, offshore wind power plants, power plants located in at least 02 provinces, regardless of the capacity, and power plants with capacities according to approved schemes or approved plans to implement schemes as follows: 50 MW or higher for inshore and onshore wind power plants, solar power plants; 15 MW or higher for waste-to-energy plants, biomass power plants; 05 MW or higher for other power sources, excluding the rooftop solar power sources;

(ii) Electricity transmission activities;

(iii) Any electricity distribution project that spans across at least 02 provinces or with a voltage level of at least 110 kV;

(iv) Electricity wholesaling or retailing activities in at least 02 provinces or with a voltage level of at least 22 kV;

(v) The applicant in multiple fields, including fields by the MOIT and provincial People's Committees; and

(vi) Electricity wholesaling or retailing activities with competitive market scope in at least 02 provinces.

(b) Except for the cases under the authority of the MOIT, the Provincial People's Committee shall issue licenses for the following cases:

(i) Electricity generation activities with a capacity according to the approved planning or plan to implement a planning below: under 50 MW for inshore and onshore wind power plants, solar power plants; under 15 MW for waste-to-energy plants, biomass power plants; under 05 MW for other power sources, excluding the rooftop solar power sources;

(ii) Electricity distribution activities with a voltage level under 110 kV; and

(iii) Electricity wholesaling or retailing activities with a voltage level under 22 kV.

Dentons LuatViet acknowledges and thanks Junior Associate Tinh Nguyen for his contribution to the article.