Russian state-owned energy firm Rosatom and Myanmar’s Zeya & Associates are set to implement a 200 MW wind-power project near Mount Popa in Mandalay Region’s Kyaukpadaung Township.
Mandalay Region Chief Minister U Myo Aung met with Zeya and Rosatom executives at his office in Mandalay on Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Electricity, where they briefed him on their plans for the project, including the proposed locations for wind turbines.
Zeya & Associates Co. Ltd is a subsidiary of the RGK+Z&A Group of Companies. Group CEO Zeya Thura Mon, who was at Tuesday’s meeting, is a prominent junta crony.
In June 2023 he was part of a junta delegation to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, where Myanmar’s Electricity Ministry signed two memoranda of understanding with Rosatom subsidiary NovaWind, Zeya, and another Myanmar company to launch feasibility studies for wind-power projects.
Plans for the 200 MW wind-power project crystallized after the feasibility study pointed to Kyaukpadaung near Mount Popa, a dormant volcano and pilgrimage site about 50 km southeast of Bagan.
Zeya Thura Mon signed another MOU with Rosatom to develop non-energy nuclear technologies in Myanmar, specifically processing products using ionizing radiation.
Since the 2021 coup, blackouts have worsened across Myanmar as electricity production plummeted by at least a third. Analysts blame economic mismanagement by the junta.
The ministry earlier this month said average daily demand across Myanmar is 4,400 MW, but only half or an average of 2,200 MW can be generated.
The country uses thermal power plants, but due to a decrease in the availability of natural gas, the junta claims it has lost approximately 300 MW worth of capacity.
The ministry also blamed damaged power lines and natural disasters.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the Mandalay chief minister said the Electricity Ministry has signed MOUs for eight wind-power projects across the country. Rosatom is to be involved in three of them.
The other two are a 116 MW project in Minhla and a 56 MW project in Mindon, both in Magway Region.
The junta hiked electricity tariffs in September. The new rates include a minimum charge of 50 kyats per unit for the first 50 units and then a steep 300 kyats per unit for consumption exceeding 201 units, a drastic increase from the previous maximum charge of 125 kyats.
As a result, household electricity bills have roughly doubled while power cuts have been getting longer as allocation rotates in shorter and shorter intervals since the New Year.
In Yangon, residents receive in theory an average of eight hours of electricity per day, often in intermittent four-hour blocks followed by eight-hour outages. In other regions and states, the average daily power supply is even lower, sometimes less than four hours. But even that is unreliable.
