Environmental and External Costs of Yali Hydropower Plant and Policy Recommendations in Vietnam

The purpose of this study is to estimate the monetary value of the main environmental and external costs of Yali Hydropower Plant (YHPP) and to incorporate them into the financial viability indices of the plant, namely its net present value and electricity price. The results were found that if the electricity price is kept at its original level of 5.2 US cents/kWh to cover direct costs only, the net present value of the plant would be reduced to about 27% by incorporating environmental and external costs. Alternatively, the electricity price would have to be increased to 5.68 US cents/kWh in order to cover the full costs of YHPP and to maintain the original net present value. The main policy recommendations are: Government regulations should require that the financial analysis and appraisal of all future electricity sources include the full cost of these schemes, including not only direct costs but also environmental and external costs related to preventing or mitigating the environmental impact caused by them. An appropriate financial mechanism should be established to allocate the revenue from full cost electricity pricing to a fund to cover the environmental protection and compensation costs.