Cambodia Ramping Up Hydro

Energy Tribune
May. 19, 2008
By Neil Hickey

Cambodia is speeding ahead with plans to expand its hydropower sector – spurred on by a voracious demand for electricity, yet seemingly impervious to environmental and agricultural concerns.

Renewed Chinese investment is bankrolling the plan, which has long been stalled due to war, political uncertainty, and the Asian economic crisis more than ten years ago. However, now the time is right, and Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Hor Namhong recently declared that his government plans to turn the country into the “battery of Southeast Asia” – ambitious words indeed for a country that struggles to adequately power even itself.

Cambodia’s power consumption is among the lowest anywhere, and its annual consumption of about 125 million kilowatt-hours is easily the lowest in Southeast Asia – in fact, less than one-sixth of Fiji’s. And that lack of electricity is reflected in Cambodia’s gross domestic product, which ranks 155th in the world, making it one of the world’s poorest countries. However, its economy is picking up and recent growth has been more than 10 percent annually. Now this country – with its rugged beauty and brutal history, smaller than the state of Oklahoma – desperately needs the energy sources to power this continued growth.

Cambodia’s outdated, predominantly diesel-fueled power plants only meet 75 percent of the country’s demand. That has resulted in frequent blackouts, with power costs more than double those of neighboring Thailand and Vietnam.

Just 20 percent of Cambodia’s 14 million citizens have access to cheap and reliable electricity, and demand is growing at about 20 percent a year. To address that demand, the Cambodian government has agreed to construct at least four Chinese-funded hydropower projects as part of a $3 billion scheme to boost power output.