Laos links 195MW of power to Cambodia’s grid

• 8 January 2020
• Local News
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Laos has linked 195MW of hydropower from one its dams to Cambodia’s national grid with the power transfer scheduled to come into operation in the first quarter of 2020.

According to Ministry of Mines and Energy, the power linked to a transmission line in Cambodia’s Stung Treng province is subject to a power purchase agreement between Don Sahong Dam in Laos and Cambodia’s Electricity Authority (EDC).

H.E. Victor Jona, Director General of Energy at Ministry of Mines and Energy, said that power linkage from Don Sahong Dam to Cambodia’s border in Stung Treng province would then see power transferred to Phnom Penh via 230-kV transmission line.

The official transaction of the power purchase will be made in the first quarter this year, H.E. Victor Jona said, with the power tariff in the agreement being US$0.073 per kilowatt hour.

Currently, Cambodia imports power between 50MW to 70MW from Laos. Last year, a 2,400MW power purchase agreement between Cambodia and Laos was signed whereby Cambodia agreed to purchase power from coal-fired power plants in Laos.

This power purchase is scheduled to implemented in a number of steps, with the first step scheduled for 2024.

The US$500-million dam in Laos, was invested in by Malaysia’s Mega First Corporation Berhad and EDL-Generation Public Company, and built on the Mekong River in Laos’s southern Champasak province, just two kilometres north of Cambodia.

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