Chinese firm mulls energy sector prospects

A monk walks past an electrical power plant in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district in early 2014. Hong Menea

A leading Chinese manufacturer of power transmission and distribution equipment recently visited Cambodia to explore opportunities in the Kingdom’s rapidly growing energy sector, including a proposal for a factory to produce equipment for the electricity sector.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) met representatives of Tebian Electric Apparatus Co Ltd (TBEA), a Chinese producer of power transmission and distribution (T&D) equipment, to discuss various power development projects and their requirements, ministry spokesman Tun Lean said yesterday.

He said that TBEA was interested in selling its T&D products in Cambodia, and seeking opportunities in power development projects such as coal plants, hydropower stations, solar installations and transmission lines.

Lean said ministry officials outlined projects within the scope of the ministry’s 2017-2030 master plan for power development, and invited TBEA to join the bidding process as a contractor or equipment supplier.

He said the ministry also advised TBEA of the opportunity “to establish a new factory for T&D products or other accessory electrical appliances for local use . . . or export”.

Based in Xinjiang province in western China, TBEA is benefitting from the Chinese government’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, bagging a number of high-profile energy projects in central Asia, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In July, its renewable-energy subsidiary TBEA Xinjiang SunOasis Co signed a memorandum of understanding with the Egyptian government to build a 1-gigawatt solar plant in the African nation.

Representatives of TBEA did not respond to requests for interview.

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