Myanmar and Thailand will implement one more major hydropower project in the form of joint venture on Myanmar's Thanlwin River in southern part of Shan state, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Tuesday.

According to an agreement signed here on Monday between the Hydroelectric Power Department of Myanmar and the MDX Group of Thailand, about 6 billion U.S. dollars will be injected into the 7, 110-megawatt (mw) Ta Sang hydropower project which is set to complete within 15 years.

Electricity generated from the plant will be mainly sold to Thailand with certain amount of it to be supplied to some areas in Myanmar free of charge, the report said.

In December last year, the Myanmar department and the EGAT Public Company of Thailand had signed an agreement on implementing another hydropower project on the same Thanlwin River in eastern Kayin state. The Hutgyi hydropower project plant consist of a 600-mw turbine that can produce 3.82 billion kilowatt-hours (kwh) yearly and power produced from the project is also expected to be partly exported to Thailand.

The above two projects constitute part of those on Thanlwin and Tanintharyi River agreed in June last year when Myanmar Minister of Electric Power Major-General Tin Htut visited Thailand.

According to official statistics, Myanmar has a total of over 1, 335 mw of installed generating capacity of electric power as of the end of March 2005, feeding electricity into the national grid system. The hydropower ones account for 35 percent, while the gas-fired ones take 50 percent of the country's total capacity. The power generated in 2004-05 which ended in March were 5.4 billion kwh, the figures show.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has been implementing a five-year short-term electric power plan, which began in 2003, to generate 2,000 more mw in a bid to fulfill its domestic power demand and bring about socio-economic progress.

Under another 30-year long-term electric power development strategy, 18 other new major electric power projects for power grid with a total installed capacity of 14,880 mw are to be implemented in the future, according to the ministry.

Source: Xinhua