More power drawn from Vietnam

Photo by: Sovan Pilong

Despite drawing 20MW more power from Vietnam, demand still outstrips supply in Phnom Penh.

A HIGH-RANKING government official revealed yesterday that Cambodia has drawn an additional 20 megawatts of power from Vietnam, after Prime Minister Hun Sen appealed to Hanoi to increase output to the Kingdom.

Ith Prang, secretary of state of the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, said that Vietnam had begun supplying Cambodia with the extra power in late June.

It is now being distributed to consumers in Phnom Penh.

According to a power-purchasing agreement signed in 2001, Vietnam has agreed to supply 200MW of power annually to Cambodia from 2009 – but it has fallen short of the target and only supplied 100MW earlier this year.

In March, Hun Sen called for Vietnam to provide an additional 50MW to help meet domestic demand, 20MW of which has now been drawn.

“We have received 120MW of electricity supply from Vietnam so far [this year] and we do not expect that the Vietnam will supply any more power to us as it is also facing problem of inadequate supplies,” Ith Prang said.

He added that the additional power drawn was still not enough to meet present local demand.

Energy demand in Phnom Penh is currently around 300MW per year, and is set to increase by 25 percent in the next year.

“We are trying to push the constructions of hydroelectricity dams to be finished as soon as possible so that we can get more power to supply and respond to our local energy demand,” Ith Prang said.

According to the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, from 2011 until the end of 2013, Cambodia aims to have a total of 869MW of power generated by hydroelectric dams at Kamchay, Attay, Tattay, Kirirom 3 and Russei Chrum Kraom River, together with a coal power plant in Preah Sihanouk province.