Active. Rooftop solar surplus recovery, and a rule set that is moving faster than most project timelines.
Industrial rooftop solar in Vietnam has often produced a commercial problem rather than a saving. Generation exceeds usable load, and the power purchase agreement carries minimum consumption, take or pay, export or curtailment provisions that turn surplus into cost.
That is changing. Decree 243/2026/ND-CP amends the two decrees governing direct power purchase agreements and renewable energy development. It raises the cap on surplus rooftop solar sold under negotiated contract from 20 percent to 50 percent of total generation, and allows a higher ratio to be agreed through late 2030 where the regional grid meets safety standards.16 Tariff caps on physical direct purchase transactions and on the sale of excess rooftop output to a retailer have been removed, so price is now negotiated.17 The procedure for synthetic direct purchase agreements has been cut from seven steps to three, and licensed retailers in zones and clusters have been added as eligible participants.17
The practical consequence for a behind the meter storage case is direct. If a site can now sell half its output rather than a fifth, and at a negotiated price, the value of storing surplus for later self consumption falls, and the case has to be rebuilt rather than adjusted. Any Vietnamese feasibility study written before mid 2026 needs to be re-run.
On the incentive side, storage attached to a renewable plant qualifies for additional support where it meets defined thresholds, reported as storage capacity of at least 10 percent of plant capacity, two hour duration, and at least 5 percent of power delivered from stored output.18 The direct purchase market has in practice been active for solar projects of 3 MW and above under implementing guidance effective March 2026.19
Grid side deployment is starting too. The northern power corporation reported a first phase of 305 MW and 610 MWh of storage across 47 substations at 110 kV, alongside more than 10,000 self consumption rooftop customers totalling roughly 718 MW by the end of June 2026.16
Our position on Vietnam has not changed, but the reasoning behind it has. Time of use arbitrage alone rarely carries the case. The value sits in contract structure and surplus treatment, and those are exactly the terms the regulator has been rewriting. For most sites the honest answer today is a phased strategy with a defined trigger, rather than a system sized on rules that may not survive the year.