Thailand
New Laos-Cambodia line set to expand power trade, ties
With the launch of a new electricity transmission line by the Lao People’s Democratic Republic up to Cambodia, the energy trade, cooperation, and relations between the two Southeast Asian neighbours are set to get a power boost.
The new 500-kilovolt (KV) transmission line links a power substation at a village in the southern Champasak province of Laos to the border area of Cambodia.
To meet the growing demand for energy from the rapidly expanding economy, Cambodia imports around 25 percent of its power requirement from countries as Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand.
From Laos, Cambodia currently imports around 445 MW, and the power trade is expected to reach 6,000 MW by 2030.
“The import of electricity is first to supplement the shortage and secondly to reduce the environmental impact,” Electricité du Cambodge (EDC) Director General Keo Rattanak said earlier. Cambodia spends more than $100 million a year to meet domestic electricity needs from Laos and to provide a clean source of energy, he added.
The Kingdom generates electricity from hydropower dams, coal-fired units, diesel-consuming plants, solar energy parks, and biomass power units, and aims to adopt natural gas, LNG, or hydrogen as a fuel for power production.
In December 2022, electricity production in Cambodia reached 10,313 gigawatts per hour (GWh), compared with 9,713 GWh in the previous year. In 2020, the country generated 8,581 GWh of power. The December 2022 figure is at an all-time high, according to CEIC data.
Electricity supply has recorded an average annual growth of 1,770 GWh between December 2004 and December 2022. The per capita consumption of electricity in Cambodia is 353 kilowatts per hour (KWh).
The new power transmission line will play an important role in developing the energy sector in the Southeast Asian country, especially its ability to provide electricity to local residents and benefit economic development, Laos Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines Thongphat Inthavong was reported as saying by Lao National Radio on Thursday. According to a Xinhua report, the transmission line was launched by Inthavong on Tuesday.
The 200 km-long power transmission line is an important achievement for Laos to export electricity to neighbouring countries, especially Cambodia, said Chanthaboun Soukaloun, Managing Director of Electricite du Laos.
At present, Laos supplies electricity via a 115kV transmission line between its Champassak province and Stung Treng province in Cambodia, and the new 500-kilovolt transmission line will
help ease the transfer of electricity.
While electricity to Cambodia from Vietnam is transported through high voltage lines to Phnom Penh, from Thailand it goes through Banteay Meanchey, Battambang and Siem Reap lines.
Meanwhile, the government of Laos, which plans to turn the country into a power “battery of Southeast Asia”, has developed several hydroelectricity plants.
As of 2022, Laos has nearly 11,000 MW installed power generation capacity from around 90 projects. Of these, 77 are hydroelectricity projects, eight solar power plants, four biomass schemes, and one coal-fired power unit.
By 2025, Laos plans to generate 1,807 MW more electricity, with hydropower accounting for 57 percent, coal-fired power 19 percent, and solar power 24 percent of the total.
By 2030, Laos is expected to generate an additional 5,559 MW of electricity. Of this, 77.59 percent will come from hydropower and the rest from solar, wind, and coal-fired power plants, according to reports.
Laos has significantly more generation technical capacity compared to its domestic consumption needs and exports up to 78 percent of its generation, according to a PwC report titled “Regional electricity trade in ASEAN: The road ahead to an integrated and greener electricity future”.
Apart from Cambodia, Laos, the main exporter of power within ASEAN, supplies electricity to Vietnam, Thailand, China, and Singapore and is in the process of conducting studies to export power
to Malaysia.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501216024/new-laos-cambodia-line-set-to-expand-power-trade-ties/