Wah Seong Venturing into Biomass Power Project

Wah Seong Corp Bhd’s indirect subsidiary, PMTI Energy (Cambodia) Co Ltd has entered into a power purchase agreement with Electricite Du Cambodge (EDC), a wholly-owned limited liability enterprise in Cambodia.

Upon signing the agreement, PMTI Energy will provide and sell a contracted capacity of 48,000 megawatt (MW) of electricity per annum to EDC’s network and EDC for 10 years, and the supply may be extended for an additional period.

PMTI Energy has been granted approval by the Cambodian Ministry of Mines and Energy to invest in the construction of a 10MW power per hour rice husk power plant in Battambang province, Cambodia.

“Hence, PMTI Energy would be venturing into a biomass power plant project by exploiting Cambodia’s abundance supply of rice husk waste as a reliable source of renewable energy for electricity power generation,” the company said in a filing to Bursa Malaysia.

It said the venture is in line with the group’s strategy of developing a portfolio of renewable energy or power plants in the region that is expected to contribute positively to Wah Seong Corp Group’s earnings.

Source: Yahoo News | September 5, 2014

US Firms Eye US$900M Project

A handful of US-based energy firms have met with the government over the past week to discuss plans for two large-scale power-generation projects worth a total of $900 million.

According to the Ministry of Commerce’s official Facebook page, representatives from US renewable energy firms Willowbrook Company and Sun Edison met with Commerce Minister Sun Chanthol on August 20 to present plans for a 200-megawatt solar power plant valued at $400 million.

“If approved, the project is scheduled to commence in 2015 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2017,” the statement said, adding that the firms would need to negotiate and sign an agreement with Electricite du Cambodge before getting the go-ahead.

“Once built and operational, the estimated year-one output for this fully operational plant will be 394 million kWh,” the statement said.

“This 500-hectare solar power plant in Cambodia is uniquely the first of its kind in renewable energy investment in Cambodia and Asia.”

On August 22, two days after the initial meeting, Chanthol met with representatives from US power-generation companies Beowulf Energy and Colorado Energy Management.

According to a second statement from the ministry, Beowulf is currently “evaluating the possibility” of investing $500 million into the construction of an oil refinery in the Kingdom.

“Beowulf is the second US company that visited Cambodia after the reverse trade mission to the US in June 2014 organized by the US Ambassador and attended by Minister Sun and businessmen from Cambodia,” the statement said.

Chanthol is reported to have approved in principle both projects and will consider giving the firms the green light upon the Council for Development of Cambodia (CDC) receiving an official investment proposal.

A spokesman for the Commerce Ministry could not provide further details, and CDC spokesman Chea Vuthy said he was only aware of the US firms’ presence and had not yet held formal talks with them regarding their plans.

“I know they have spoken with Mr Chanthol only and I do not know the details of their discussions. We have not received any formal documents from them for the proposals,” Vuthy said.

Meng Saktheara, secretary of state at the Ministry of Mines and Energy, told the Post that he expected to meet with representatives of Beowulf in the coming days.

“We have meetings planned, so we hope they show the same amount of interest with us as they did with Mr Chanthol. But we do not know more details. We will wait and see,” Saktheara said.

“Energy is a long-term project and requires a lot of preparation . . . US business needs to find and secure their place in Cambodia’s future energy development too.

“What we want is a quality and responsible investment. Cambodia is looking for a long-term partner rather than opportunistic [companies]. We are not in a hurry, we are scrutinising quality of investments.”

Source: Phnom Penh Post | August 26, 2014 | By: Eddie Morton

Malaysian Firm Joins Power Line Assembly

Malaysian company Pestech International Bhd has won government approval to build an $86 million power transmission line from Preah Sihanouk province to Phnom Penh.

The company’s subsidiary, Pestech Cambodia, in a joint venture with local firm Alex Corporation (ACCL), will commence designing, engineering and constructing the 198-kilometre power line within the next three months, a March 10 filing on the Malaysian stock exchange said.

Construction is expected to be completed within 32 months.

When finished, the 230-kilovolt transmission line will connect an existing Preah Sihanouk substation in Stung Hav district with a West Phnom Penh substation. Both are run by state-owned energy supplier Electricite du Cambodge.

Pestech said in the filing that the project is expected to contribute positively to the company’s future earnings.

In October of last year, the government announced it had commissioned Alex Corporation to build $119 million worth of transmission lines in a build-operate-transfer agreement to construct and run the infrastructure before handing it over at the end of a 29-year lease. Pestech was not mentioned as being part of the deal, nor did the government specify how many lines Alex Corporation had been enlisted to build.

Neither Electricite du Cambodge nor the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy could be reached for comment yesterday.

The announcement comes less than a month after Prime Minister Hun Sen officially launched operations at the Kingdom’s first coal-fired power plant in Stung Hav district.

During the launch of the 100- megawatt power plant, which is owned by Malaysian company Leader Universal Ltd, Hun Sen also announced the development of a second, partly Chinese-owned coal-fired plant in the same region, which is slated to open later this year.

The Pestech and Alex Corporation transmission line project, which includes an upgrade to the substation in Preah Sihanouk, will ferry the power generated by the region’s current and future producers to the capital once complete, the filing said.

Dato Sean H’ng, group CEO for Leader Universal, declined to comment on the recent announcement.

Source: Phnom Penh Post | March 12, 2014 | By: Eddie Morton