After the 30-4 and 1-5 holidays, on numerous forums and social networks, people are “showing off” their electricity bills for April.
In a community group, someone posted the content “Rich people these days should stop showing off their luxury goods and show off their electricity bills” and within 20 minutes, it had attracted more than 100 comments. Many of the members of the group stated that their April electricity bills had increased by 40%-50% compared to March, but that they had been mentally prepared so were not shocked.
Nguyen Vinh Hieu, who lives in District 8, Ho Chi Minh City, said that his household only has 2 people and the electricity bill is usually around 450,000-460,000 VND. In March 2024, it increased to 550,000 VND, but in April it jumped to 725,000 VND. “I live in an apartment building. Normally, I just need to open all the windows and doors and use a fan and it’s cool enough. But for the last ten days, I have had to turn on the air conditioner in the living room almost 24/7. All daily activities have been moved to the living room to escape the heat and save electricity as much as possible,” explained Hieu.
Similarly, Ngoc, who lives in Binh Thanh District, said that she had just paid over 997,000 VND for electricity, the highest amount her family has ever had to pay. “It’s mainly because we’ve been using the air conditioner a lot. It’s so hot, we can’t breathe without air conditioning,” explained Ngoc.
However, there are still quite a few people who were surprised when they saw their electricity bill, even though they had been “mentally prepared.” Tran Van Thai, who lives in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, said that he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw his April electricity bill was almost 5 million VND, an increase of 2 million VND compared to the previous month.
“We have 3 air conditioners and 2 refrigerators running 24/7. My wife and children are used to using the air conditioner at around 23-24 degrees Celsius, but during the hot days, we had to turn it down to 20-21 degrees Celsius to stay cool. I knew that the electricity bill would go up, but I didn’t expect it to increase by that much,” said Thai.
Tran Van Thai’s household electricity bill is close to 5 million VND
With the extreme heat in April, household electricity consumption increased and the electricity bill went up, as predicted by the electricity industry.
At the end of March, the Ho Chi Minh City Power Corporation (EVNHCMC) predicted that the amount of electricity consumed in April would reach “unprecedented levels” due to the peak heat with temperatures reaching over 37-40 degrees Celsius at many points. The number of hours of heat each day also increased, even at night. Therefore, the demand for electricity from customers also increased, mainly due to the increased use of cooling and heating appliances, especially air conditioners.
“Household electricity consumption increased by 12% compared to March and 20% compared to April 2023. During the month, the number of customers using tier 6 electricity increased to 44% of all household electricity customers (normally, it’s only around 25%). As a result, many households saw a sharp increase in their electricity bills in April,” explained Bui Trung Kien, Deputy General Director of EVNHCMC
According to the meteorological and hydrological center, in May the temperature will decrease compared to April and the rainy season will begin, but it will still be at a high level and the daytime sun will still be strong, so the Ho Chi Minh City power industry recommends that people continue to increase their efforts to save electricity.
