Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) has ordered provinces and ministries to speed up rooftop solar support policies, saying most have missed a national deadline.

Only two of Vietnam’s 34 provinces and cities, Bac Ninh and Lai Chau, have adopted the required policies, more than five months after a prime ministerial directive set a March 2027 rollout deadline. Eight others, including Hanoi and Can Tho, haven’t even submitted implementation plans, said the ministry.

Among national ministries, only MOIT and the Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs have issued their own implementation plans, out of 17 required.

The gap comes three months after Vietnam eased rules on selling surplus solar power back to the grid. Decree 243, effective June 26, raised the default surplus-sale cap to 50% of output, from 20%, with higher sales allowed through 2030 where grids have spare capacity. It also broadened eligibility for direct power purchase agreements (DPPAs) to data center operators and EV-charging businesses, cutting the application process from seven steps to three, according to legal analyses of the decree. Vietnam’s first DPPA under the country’s original framework entered operation in June.

Despite the liberalization, no surplus rooftop solar sales have been recorded under the new decree, Vietnam Clean Energy Association Vice Chairman Nguyen Xuan Quy said in August, citing a lack of implementation guidance.

State utility Vietnam Electricity (EVN) reported 130,811 rooftop solar systems nationwide as of end-July, over 11,200 MWp combined. Of about 28,254 systems registered under current self-consumption rules, only 287, roughly 16.4 MW, are registered to sell surplus power. Vietnam’s total solar capacity surpassed 19 GW earlier this year.

EVN’s transmission subsidiary, Vietnam Electricity National Power Transmission Corp. (EVNNPT), said earlier this month that it is investing in five Quang Tri transmission projects, one 500 kV and four 220 kV, under the revised national power plan. Separately, EVN’s Hanoi and northern-region units have installed a combined 120 MW of grid-connected battery storage this year, part of a planned 530 MW/1,060 MWh buildout across 83 substations, though for grid stability rather than household aggregation. The upgrades follow warnings that Vietnam’s rapid solar growth is straining grid capacity and complicating project finance.

Separately, Hanoi’s city council is also weighing a draft proposal offering households up to VND 6 million ($230) toward solar-and-storage costs. However, the matter is still under public comment with no vote scheduled, following an earlier national proposal for residential solar-and-storage financial support.

Vietnam’s single-buyer market structure remains unchanged, and no framework yet exists for third-party aggregators to pool rooftop solar, batteries and EVs into virtual power plants, a gap identified as a key obstacle to the country’s storage ambitions.