Myanmar: Turkey Firms Up Plans to Launch Power Barge to Rangoon

Myanmar: Turkey Firms Up Plans to Launch Power Barge to Rangoon

Turkey-based Karpower is looking to sail a 480 megawatt-capacity power barge
from Istanbul to Burma's commercial capital of Rangoon in April, expecting
it to supply 20 percent of the country's total electricity consumption, said
Orhan Karadeniz, chief executive officer of the Karadeniz Powership energy
group, at a ceremony in Istanbul on Sunday.

The 300-meter barge will be situated near Thilawa International Port in
Rangoon, and is due to provide 300 megawatts a year to the city for five
years.

According to an initial agreement with the Burma government, the electricity
will cost US$112.24 per megawatt, said to be among the lowest electricity
rates available.

"We are not using turbines. These are engines that are running on natural
gas and low-sulphur HFO [heavy fuel oil] for producing electricity under a
dual fuel system," said Zeynep Harezi of Karpower.

"We're preparing to set up transmission lines in Thanlyin-Thaketa for the
purposes of supplying the electricity," he added.

Rangoon's electricity consumption has been rapidly increasing-by 15 percent
per year-recently reaching 1200 megawatts per day-which is half of the
country's daily total electricity consumption.

In October, Karpower was awarded the tender as one of two electricity
suppliers-the other one being American company APR Energy-to satisfy
Rangoon's growing energy demand, including for factories, hospitals, and
schools.

The building of more factories and hotels inside industrial zones is likely
one of the reasons for Rangoon's energy-demand surge. Rangoon Chief
Minister U Phyo Min Thein said in May that the city required more
electricity due to the proliferation of businesses-which have had to rely on
old cable networks and other weak infrastructures that waste electricity-and
that energy demand will probably only increase in light of widespread
construction in the city.

"It will continue to be a struggle to distribute a sufficient supply of
electricity in the coming months," U Phyo Min Thein said earlier this year.

A 2014 Burma census revealed that only 32.4 percent of respondents use
electricity as their primary source of energy for lighting, while nearly 70
percent said that their main source of energy for cooking comes from
firewood, with electricity trailing at 16.4 percent.

Karpower was founded in 1996, and its first power barge went to Iraq in
2010. In June, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met with Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi and offered to share Turkey's experiences in the health,
education, infrastructure, and tourism sectors. He also expressed his
ambition to increase his government's trade value with Burma.

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Link to Original Article:
http://www.irrawaddy.com/business/turkey-firms-plans-launch-power-barge-rang
oon.html

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com