Electricity Prices to Rise For Thousands of Homes

The state-owned energy supplier Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) will increase the price of electricity in September for tens of thousands of homes in Phnom Penh and three other provinces due to a hike in the cost of energy being supplied by Vietnam, officials said yesterday. Ty Thany, executive director of the Electricity Authority of Cambodia (EAC), said that 30,000 homes in Phnom Penh, Kandal, Kompong Speu and Sihanoukville that use more than 200 kilowatt-hours per month would encounter a 13.8 percent increase in the price of their electricity to 820 riel per kWh. “When Vietnam increased the price…the government decided to cut down on the subsidies by 20 percent, but not for all the residents, only those using over the 200 kilowatt-hours,” he said. “We think that these are families with incomes high enough to be able to pay it,” he added. …