Battery storage system costs in Hanoi

In 2023, EVN PECC3 estimated that the cost for a 2 MWh BESS system was 360–420 USD/kWh, and that the investment would requires electricity prices in Vietnam above 18 UScent/kWh to be profitable – this is twice the current levels. However, BESS costs are declining rapidly.

The largest electricity storage project in Vietnam is the Bac Ai Pumped Storage Hydropower Project. Located in Ninh Thuan province, the project has a capacity of 1,200 MW and is expected to play a crucial role in stabilizing the grid when it completes in a few years.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the cost of lithium-ion batteries has declined by approximately 89% since before 2010 and will fall further over the next decade. In 2021, battery pack prices were cheapest in China, at USD111/kWh (BNEF 2021 ).

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) have a wide range of applications, from residential systems to large-scale utility projects that help with peak shaving, frequency regulation, and backup power. In areas where the grid is unreliable or inaccessible, batteries can provide backup power in case of outage or other emergency.

At the time of research, most of the papers studied PV-battery systems with storage capacities of 0.5–1 kWh times the installed PV capacity in kW, due to the high cost of such systems, meaning that batteries were used for short-term storage, normally less than one day.

While Vietnam has yet to implement a national carbon pricing policy, the country has taken steps toward implementing carbon pricing, including conducting pilot programs and developing a draft decree on carbon pricing that is currently under review (No. 06/2022/ND-CP).