Electricity infrastructure

Construction of the Don Sahong hydropower project in southern Laos is likely to decimate an already dwindling population of critically endangered Mekong dolphins, according to a World Wildlife Fund science brief published today. About 85 dolphins inhabit a deep-water pool restricted to a stretch of the ...

A group of eight villagers from Stung Treng and Ratanakkiri provinces facing displacement by the construction of the Lower Sesan 2 dam lodged a petition Thursday with the Chinese Embassy and three ministries demanding that the developer negotiate with them. “The affected families have never been ...

Construction at the controversial Lower Sesan II dam site in Stung Treng province has already begun, according to villagers, who will today petition several ministries, the Chinese embassy and the headquarters of the Royal Group to open negotiations with them. According to the villagers, who travelled ...

NGOS have accused logging tycoon Try Pheap’s MDS Import-Export Company – which had a licence to clear forest during the construction of the Stung Atai hydropower dam in Pursat – of continuing to log the area despite the dam being finished. Ouch Leng, director of the ...

Cambodia’s electricity sector made notable progress in 2013 in terms of its sources, connection lines, and supplies, according to the Cambodian Electricity Authority. There was an increasing usage of 4297 million Kwh or 22 per cent in 2013 from 3527 million Kwh in 2012, according to ...

Cambodia’s largest hydropower plant to date, the Stung Russey Chrum, is operational. The 338-megawatt dam, located in Koh Kong’s Mondul Sima district forest, produced and transmitted electricity to Phnom Penh last month, according to its developer, China Huadian Corporation. “It is the biggest and best dam we ...

The Lower Russei Chrum River hydroelectric dam, which is the Cambodia’s largest hydropower plant, has begun testing operation after it has been constructed for three and a half years, a company’s official said on Saturday. The 338-megawatt hydropower dam, situated in the jungle in Mondol Sima ...

A world class Japanese Company, IDEMITSU, will build a bio-fuel factory in Cambodia in 2015, and will commence exploring bio-fuel in Cambodia for the first time in 2017, Mr. Heng Ratana, General Director of Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) told reporters yesterday. IDEMITSU has been ...

Construction of the Lower Sesan 2 dam will begin early next month, residents and authorities said after a meeting in Stung Treng province on Monday. Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem for the first time gave a time frame for the construction of the dam ...

The chairman of the Chinese company whose subsidiary will construct the Lower Sesan 2 dam met with Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday to inform him that the dam would be completed in three years’ time, Mr. Hun Sen’s assistant said. Zhang Tingke, vice president of ...

Resembling a giant Rubik’s cube under construction, the solar-powered factory in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district will be completely off the grid. Some 1,350 solar panels, each one capable of generating 100 watts per hour of sunlight, cover the three-story building. In a few months, ...

Rolling blackouts between three and nine hours long hit some locations in the capital, Kandal and Kampong Speu yesterday and will continue through Sunday, according to Electricite du Cambodge. ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that the Southeast Asian nation has no ambition to develop a nuclear power plant, but wants to use nuclear technologies in agriculture, health, and animal breeds. The prime minister made the remarks during a meeting with Yukiya Amano, director ...

About 200 monks from Phnom Penh’s Wat Lanka on Thursday called off a protest against the planned construction of an electricity distribution substation on the pagoda’s land by state electricity provider Electricite du Cambodge (EdC), pending negotiations with the company. Having assembled to make banners for ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday signed off on nine wide-ranging deals with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung during a state visit that ends Saturday, including arrangements to tighten media, public security and trade cooperation, according to Cambodian and Vietnamese state media. Cambodian state news ...

CPP lawmakers including Prime Minister Hun Sen unanimously voted Friday for their party members, Suy Sem and Cham Prasidh, to become heads of the newly created Ministry of Mines and Energy, and the Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts, respectively. The 67 ruling-party parliamentarians present also approved ...

A coalition of NGOs yesterday implored Prime Minister Hun Sen to shelve the government’s plans for the Stung Cheay Areng hydropower dam in Koh Kong province and instead turn the wilderness area in question into an eco-tourism site. ...

Cambodia is moving forward with development of the Lower Se San 2 hydropower project and is seeking support from surrounding nations. A spirit of collaboration was established on Tuesday at a meeting between Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, Tourism Minister Dr. Thong Khon and ...

The Mekong River Commission’s (MRC) study on the potential long-term effects of large-scale dam building on the Mekong River needs to be expedited, members of the MRC agreed at the Fifth Mekong-Japan Summit in Tokyo on Saturday. However, they did not set a date for the ...

Low electrification rates and over-dependence on fossil fuel imports have contributed to Cambodia’s abysmally low ranking in the new World Economic Forum’s Global Energy Architecture Performance Index Report for 2014. Cambodia ranked 120 out of 124 nations, with a so-called Energy Architecture Performance Index (EAPI) score ...

Communities threatened by the planned construction of three hydropower dams in Stung Treng and Ratanakkiri provinces will today submit to the Chinese Embassy a petition demanding that the embassy intervene against Chinese companies investing in the dams. The petition, to be presented in Chinese, Khmer and ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Government of Australia are expanding access to economical and reliable energy for rural Cambodian households, including through the promotion of cookstoves in Svay Rieng and Kampong Cham provinces. A $6.1 million Australian Aid grant, administered by ADB, will finance ...

Panasonic, a leading manufacturer of electronics, will donate 1,500 solar lanterns to the UNESCO Phnom Penh Office to distribute to the poorest villages in Angkor Park on Tuesday, according to a press release issued by UNESCO. UNESCO will in turn hand the lanterns to the APSARA ...

The momentum toward large-scale dams on the Mekong River may be unstoppable, but governments must work fast to mitigate their effects on fisheries and biodiversity or risk long-term food insecurity for millions of people whose lives depend on the river and its tributaries, leading academics ...