The ADB’s first project loan since re-engaging with Myanmar, the infusion is aimed at helping to rehabilitate sections of the country’s power distribution network. Some 480,000 households in Yangon, Mandalay, Sagaing, and Magway regions will have better access to a more reliable supply of electricity to support their daily activities, according to a bank official.
“Access to electricity is crucial to development. Repairing and strengthening existing electricity infrastructure will help reduce system losses, use resources more efficiently and connect more people to the electricity grid more quickly,” said ADB vice president Stephen Groff.
ADB’s loan will fund rehabilitation works to carry electricity more efficiently, including the upgrading of existing 66/11 kilovolt (kV) and 33/11 kV substations, replacing existing 33 kV and 11 kV distribution lines, replacing existing 11/0.4 kV transformers, and upgrading digital revenue meters. The loan will also replace the tangled knots of existing bare low voltage distribution lines with more efficient, aerial-bundled conductor lines. The project will reduce distribution loss by four percent.
Improving distribution will reduce system losses and subsequently provide increased opportunities for large industries and small- and medium-sized enterprises to expand their services, enhance living conditions, and improve services at community facilities like clinics or schools, which should contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction.
In addition to providing support for transmission updates and preventing technical losses, ADB is working with the National Energy Management Committee to improve coordination between ministries responsible for the country’s energy.
“ADB is also assisting the government in preparing Myanmar energy sector policy, revising the Electricity Law, setting the national transmission and distribution code, and establishing electric equipment standards. A 20-year, long-term energy master plan is also being formulated,” the bank said in a statement.
“Future activities in the energy sector will also focus on promoting off-grid rural energy access and helping the government establish the public-private partnerships needed to raise the financing for power system expansion.”
Technical and non-technical losses from Myanmar’s aging distribution system were as high as 18.2 percent in 2012, meaning almost a fifth of all power generated was lost before reaching customers.
The country’s average electrification ratio has increased, growing from 16 percent in 2006 to 28 percent in 2012. Yangon City has the highest ratio at 72 percent, followed by Nay Pyi Taw at 65 percent and Mandalay at 35 percent. However, approximately one in five rural households are connected to the electricity grid.
Under the ADB interim partnership strategy for Myanmar 2012-2014, ADB is helping the Myanmar government to improve its management of the economy, encourage growth of small-and medium-sized enterprises, strengthen secondary education and vocational training, improve highways to neighbouring countries, expand irrigation networks, and improve water supply, sanitation, and other services in key cities and towns.
source: Eleven Myanmar
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