Three new natural gas-fired power plants expect to generate more than 450 megawatts of electricity supply next year (U Khin Maung Lay, Deputy Managing Director of Ministry of Electricity and Energy)

Three new natural gas-fired power plants with the capacity to generate more than 450 megawatts of power are expected to go live before the coming summer season. That should satisfy the energy demands of the country for 2018, said U Khin Maung Lay, deputy managing director of the Ministry of Electricity and Energy’s (MOEE) Electric Power Generation Enterprise.

“The annual electricity demand nationwide is between 300MW and 400MW. We plan to run three new gas-fired power plants that can generate 450MW by the next summer. This will meet the country’s demands, particular those from Yangon,” he said at a press conference last week.

The power plants are Thadon power plant in Mon State, Thaketa power plant in Yangon Region and Myingyan power plant in Mandalay.

State-owned Thadon power plant, which is currently being built by China Energy Engineering Group Co. (CEEC), is expected to generate 120MW of power and is about 80 percent complete.

Meanwhile, the Thaketa power plant, a joint venture between China’s Union Resources and Engineering and the MOEE, is more than three quarters complete. If the plant, which is expected to generate 106MW of power is successful, it will support most of Yangon’s electricity demand, said member of Yangon Electricity Supply Corporation U Aung Kyaw Oo.

Construction of the third and largest plant, the 225MW Myingyan plant, is about 90pc complete. When it goes live, it is expected to provide long term power supply to the Mandalay Region. The plant is now being constructed by Singapore’s Sembcorp Industries under a build-operate-transfer agreement with the MOEE.

The new power plants will also help to relieve the government’s burden from subsidising loss-making electricity tariffs to households nationwide. In 2017-18 those losses have been estimated to hit US$400 million.

(The Myanmar Times: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/three-gas-turbine-power-plants-expect-generate-sufficient-electricity-supply-next-year.html )

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