South Korean-owned SPHP (Cambodia) Co Ltd on Tuesday received government approval to build its massive $231 million Stung Pursat I hydroelectric dam in Pursat province.
The dam will be built in Veal Veng district’s Pramuoy commune and can produce 80MW.
Victor Jona, a spokesman for the Ministry of Mines and Energy told The Post that it had issued a licence to SPHP to conduct a feasibility study on the site in 2012.
The study’s results were positive and the ministry proposed to seek approval from the government to allow it to accept investments for the project.
“This is the first South Korean company that the ministry has allowed to invest in a hydro dam power generating project in Cambodia. With government approval, the company can start to develop the project, which will be completed by 2023,” he said.
Jona said the company already reached an agreement with state-owned Electricite du Cambodge (EdC) to sell all the power generated from the dam to the national grid at a cost of $0.07 per kWh.
“This is the second hydro dam project in the province, with the first being the Atai hydro dam which produces 120MW,” he said, adding that the province also has two solar projects capable of producing 60MW each being developed by two companies.
Provincial governor Mao Thorin said at a press conference last Monday that SPHP is currently developing the site by clearing land and building infrastructure.
In 2019, Cambodia produced 11,261GWh of electricity, up 21 per cent from 2018’s 9,427GWh, a ministry report said.
The country sold about 10,885GWh to more than 1.1 million consumers last year.
The government also recently approved two coal-fired power plant projects and a transmission line worth nearly $1.7 billion. From 2006 to 2019, the government attracted more than $6 billion in electricity investment.
