Is electricity affordable and reliable for all in Vietnam?

Access to clean and affordable energy for all is the seventh sustainable development goal. This manuscript examines the state of access to electricity for all in Vietnam, based on national households surveys conducted in the time period 2008-2014. Our theoretical contribution to debates on energy poverty is to account for the human dimension by using an self-reported satisfaction indicator. We argue that subjective energy poverty indicators –designed from surveys asking people if they had enough electricity to meet their households needs– are as relevant as objective indicators –from engineering or economic data. While objectivity is laudable, development is not only about technology and money: measuring human satisfaction matters. We find that in Vietnam, the problem of providing access to clean energy for all is largely solved for now: the fraction of households without access to electricity is below two percent, the median level of electricity usage in 2014 was 100 kWh per month per household, and the fraction of households declaring unsatisfied electricity needs is below three percent. We also find that electricity is becoming a heavier burden in Vietnamese households' finances. In 2010, the electricity bill exceeded 6% of income for 2.4% of households, but in 2014 that number reached 5.5% of households. Electricity is affordable for all in Vietnam today, but this could be compromised if electricity tariffs increase in order to finance further clean development of the energy system. We quantify how this problem could be attenuated by making the retail tariff of electricity much more progressive. We define a more progressive block tariff that provides free access to 30 kWh basic need per household, while increasing the cost for other blocks. This could increases the revenue for EVN by 15% and at the same time decrease the electricity bill for the 28% of households who use less than 80 kWh per month.