Coal-fired power plant to be built in Sihanoukville

By Lang Hokleng | Published on May 2, 2008

SIHANOUKVILLE – An investment project to build a 200-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Sihanoukville, Cambodia was approved by the council of ministers on Friday. It is estimated that 100-megawatt power from the plant will be available in 2010, and full power will be generated in 2011.

The plant will be built by Power Synergy Corporation Co., Ltd and is an equal joint venture between Malaysia’s Leader Universal Holdings Bhd and Cambodia’s MKCSS Holdings, a subsidiary of the AZ Group of Companies, according to Ith Praing, Secretary of State for the ministry of industry, mines, and energy. He continued on to say that the investment value of the coal power plant is $390 million and that it will be located in Sihanoukville’s Stueng Hav district near the kerosene plant. More power will cut down the price of power in Cambodia.

“Through the plant, the price of power will decline gradually,” said Ith Praing. “At the same time, the price of power will be cheaper than what we produce currently and will be the same price as that imported from Vietnam.” The power will be sold to Electric du Cambodge and linked with the national transmission grid, which will be linked from Phnom Penh to Kampot towards Sihanoukville in 2009. Praing continued on to say that Phnom Penh currently lacks more than 180-megawatts of power, but requires 230 and many factories and areas on the city’s outskirts are not yet connected to the national grid. When this project is completed, it is believed that the city will no longer have trouble with power shortages.

Opposition Party member Yim Sovann commented that it is good to gain investments in power because Cambodia currently lacks electricity. However, he expressed concerns over the health of people in the area due to poor law enforcement and corrupt officials. “The burning of coal will emit poisonous fumes, it is good if the plant is built properly in compliance with clean environmental standards,” he said. “On the other hand, if the plant is built with less attention to environment and poor law enforcement due to corrupt officials, there will be damage to the health of people surrounding the area.”
Ith Praing defended the plan, saying, “We should not worry about the environmental impact because there will be a thorough study on the impact of environment; on the other hand, the plant will use a modern clean coal technology, for which coal will be imported from Indonesia and Australia.”