Upper Belu Creek hydropower project in Shan State to resume with completion slated for 2018

A hydropower project in Shan State which has been on hold for two years will resume with completion slated for 2018.

New Power Oasis Development signed a build, operate, transfer contract in 2011 to develop the Upper Belu Creek Hydropower Project.

However, when the developer ran into financial difficulties in 2013, the project was suspended, executive director U Aye Thein told reporters last week in Indein village, southern Shan State.

It will now restart with help from the government, which holds a 40 percent stake. Loans are being provided by state-owned banks, said U Aye Thein, and the project will be built in collaboration with Japan’s Nippon Koei Company.

At an estimated cost of K52 billion the project is expected to generate 134 million kilowatt-hours of hydroelectric power each year, which will be supplied to the national grid and distributed across Myanmar, he said.

He told The Myanmar Times the company has agreed to sell electricity to the government but as yet has no clarity on the price it will be offered.

Belu Creek begins in western Pinlaung and flows into Inle Lake in Nyaungshwe. Director U Naing Win told reporters last week that the 60-year project is environmentally friendly, in that it generates electricity by diverting the current but still allowing the water to flow into Inle Lake.

The hydropower sector in Myanmar has been beset with disagreements between developers and local residents over displacement, ethnic conflict and environmental damage.

This project includes two hydropower plants – No 1 plant with a capacity of more than 90 million kWh and No 2 plant with a capacity of 44.3 million kWh, said U Naing Win.

U Tint LwinOo, deputy director at the Department of Hydropower Planning, said Myanmar generates electricity of more than 4000 megawatts a year, with annual domestic consumption of up to 2500 megawatts.

Electricity demand is rising by around 13pc, faster than the expansion of the country’s economy – which is likely to grow at between 6.5pc and 8.5pc this year, according to World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and government forecasts.

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