State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi last week launched the first phase of Myanmar’s first commercial solar-power plant in Minbu, Magwe Region, adding 40MW of power to the national grid. The Minbu Solar Power Plant project, which will be completed in four phases, will have the capacity to generate 170MW of power and produce 350 million kilowatt hours per annum, which is sufficient to electrify about 210,000 households.

Construction first began in February 2018 under a Build, Operate and Transfer arrangement between Green Earth Power (Myanmar) Co and the government. The Minbu plant is part of a longer term goal to electrify the entire country by 2030, said Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. By 2021, at least 55pc of the country is expected to receive access to power. The launch of Minbu Solar Power Plant comes two days after the Ministry of Electricity and Energy (MOEE) announced substantial hikes in electricity prices for both residential and business users from today onwards.

The government incurs costs of K89 per unit to generate and distribute electricity from hydropower, and K178 per unit for electricity from natural gas, according to the MOEE. Before the hike, electricity was provided to the public at a loss of K507 billion in the 2017-18 fiscal year and losses rose to K630 billion in 2018-19, according to data from the Ministry of Planning and Finance.

Source: Myanmar Times

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