Electricity Price Cut For Big Industry
Electricite du Cambodge has announced a price cut for large enterprises with a capacity exceeding one megawatt.
The cost per kWh will drop from $0.165 to $0.14 from this month until October. Song Saran, CEO of Amru Rice (Cambodia), said small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will not benefit from the price reduction. “I think if there is an electricity price reduction it should [be extended] to SMEs as well, because electricity usage for SMEs is not [high] enough to get the discounted price,” he said.
“Cambodia has a lot of SMEs; lowering the price for them would allow them to be able to compete with the neighbouring countries as their electricity price is from 6 to 7 cents only, while we are at $0.165." Hun Lak, vice-president of the Cambodia Rice Federation, said electricity costs were 1.5 times higher than in neighbouring countries, so their production costs are lower than our production costs.
“Now the rice market is good. We sell at good prices even though the production cost is high. Lowering electricity prices helps production,” he added. By the end of last year, the government had expanded electricity to 10,589 villages nationwide, or about 75 percent. A total of 1.9 million households were also connected, or 58 percent, according to the Ministry of Energy.
Cambodia generates 200MW of its energy though oil-powered electricity plants, 500MW through coal-fired plants and 928MW through hydropower plants. The hydroelectric Lower Sesan II dam will open next year, with a capacity of about 400MW, while a 135MW coal-fired power plant will open early in 2019.