EAC: We will cover all villages in 2020
Myanmar and Rwanda 2017.
Electricity Authority of Cambodia (EAC) vice-chairman Ty Thany said on Monday that the supply of electricity had greatly increased over the past five years, making coverage far more widespread in both Cambodia’s urban and rural areas.
The EAC’s 2018 annual report said that electricity supply in Cambodia had, by the end of last year, reached 2,650MW with the Kingdom on target to increase it to 2,870MW this year.
The Kingdom is set to import more energy from neighbouring countries to fulfil its growing demand.
“We are planning for the nain tional grid to cover all villages in Cambodia in 2020, and we are very optimistic of meeting this target,” Thany said on Monday.
Cambodia witnessed regular nationw ide power cuts for nearly three months t his year – from mid-March to mid-May. The government said it was due to t he recent hot weather causing low water levels in hydropower dam reser voirs and af fecting t he production of electricit y.
A representative from Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) – the Kingdom’s electricity supplier – could not be reached for comment on Monday.
However, Thany said blackouts should be a thing of the past as power production from the Kingdom’s hydro-electric dams is almost back to normal as reservoir levels have risen after the rainy season began.
The World Bank’s Energy Progress Report said the number of people without access to electricity dropped to around 840 million, compared to one billion in 2016 and 1.2 billion in 2010. At the end of 2017, the global electrification rate had reached 89 per cent.