Myanmar Ministry of Electrical Power fires up 120MW gas plant

The Ministry of Electrical Power have officially opened the 120 megawatts natural gas power plant that was constructed with help from Thailand.

The plant is constructed with BOT system between Ministry of Electrical Power and Toyo Thai Power Myanmar Co., Ltd., Khin Maung Soe, said the Minister of Electrical Power.

According to the contract, the ministry will have seven per cent of the 120 megawatts for free and the land lease is one square feet for one dollar per year. The company will run the plant for 30 years. The project will end up costing US$170 million and Ministry of Energy will provide the natural gas to for combustion.

“The project is implemented with two natural gas turbine in phase 1 and waste to energy boiler in phrase 2. Now the first 41 megawatts turbine from phase 1 is already running to produce electricity. Another 41 megawatts turbine will produce electricity in May,” the minister said in the opening ceremony of the power plant.

The cost to produce electricity is around 113 kyats per unit. The Ministry of Electrical Power will buy the electricity produced by the power plant with around 113 kyats per unit and distribute in addition to seven per cent of the total products, according to the agreement.

The ministry will distribute most of the electricity to Yangon and the rest will go to National Grid for other states and regions.

The electricity produced from hydro power plants in Myanmar has decreased due to water scarcity in rivers and hot season in Myanmar. Sometimes the electricity shortage is occurred due to those reasons, an official from Yangon Electricity Supply Board explained.