The government is implementing to have reserve electric generating capacity to meet the demand in 2020-21, said Deputy Permanent Secretary Soe Myint from Ministry of Electricity and Energy.

He said, “We are setting long and short term plans to meet the demand in 2020-21 FY. The reserve capacity of 700 megawatts will be available in the short time. It will be implemented with the state budget and loans.”

World Bank (WB) estimated that electricity consumption rate in Myanmar will be increased 15 per cent annually till 2030 but it will be expected to increase to 19 per cent due to the high consumption, he said.

He said, “We have to carry out three essential parts to meet the demand. The first part is generating electricity with power mix generation generated from hydro power projects, solar plants and gas fired turbines. According to our initial plan, we planned to implement the project based on the availability of the budget but the availability of the budget is delayed. However we expected the demand for the electricity will be about 3,900 megawatts in next summer. We are only producing around 3,400 megawatts right now. We acknowledged that it is our duty to fulfill the demand.”

The ministry is implementing to supply and distribute the electricity needed for the public, he said.

“We have to take time to produce electricity. For instance, we have to take about seven-year time to build a hydro power plant. So we are testing to generate electricity in a short time with gas fired turbines as we are producing natural gas,” he said.

At the present, the ministry is signed agreements with Power Kyunkse Company Limited to buy electricity generated from Baelin 145-megawatt power station and VPower Holding Limited to buy electricity produced from Myingyan 90-megawatt power station.

He said, “The companies come to discuss with us to sell electricity but we cannot buy the electricity every time they came to sell it. We will buy from them if only they can sell with a price based on the electricity bill we set in the future.”

He added the ministry is planning to use renewable energy to reduce environmental impacts, global warming and the use of electricity generated from hydropower plant.