Myanmar to double electricity capacity by 2021

• 6 years ago (2018-02-01)
• David Flin

Asia 846 Gas 370

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Myanmar is planning to double its electricity power capacity by 2021 by building natural gas-fired power plants, in a move to tackle chronic power shortages. However, experts have cautioned that it remains uncertain how the Myanmar Government would strike power purchase agreements with the investors.

Officials from Myanmar’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy said that four gas-fired power plants would be built at a total cost of $5.16 billion in several parts of the country. They said that the plants will raise generation capacity by 3100 MW, and would double the current capacity of around 3000 MW.

Soe Myint, Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Energy Ministry, said: “We will need another 3000 MW by 2021. That is why we speed up the process in order to quickly meet the demand.”

Zaw Win Naing, Assistant Secretary at the Energy Ministry said that the Government has signed agreements to “start preliminary engineering work” such as environmental assessments with six companies. The companies include: TOTAL, Siemens, Zhefu Holding, TTCL Public Company, Sinohydro Corporation, and the Myanmar-based Supreme Trading. He said that Myanmar is in talks with the individual companies to work out the power purchase agreements. The plants would mostly use imported LNG.