Energy demand in Cambodia will grow 3.7 percent per year from 2005 to 2030, outpacing the regional average of 2.4 percent, local media reported on Friday,

citing a new report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

The report, Energy Outlook for Asia and the Pacific, which was released
Tuesday at the Pacific Energy Summit in Tokyo, projects that energy
demand in Cambodia will rise from 4.8 million tonnes of oil equivalent
in 2005 to 12 million tonnes in 2030 as manufacturing industries are
established and more households are connected to the electricity grid,
the Phnom Penh Post reported.

It did not say how much Cambodia would need to invest to meet energy
needs, but placed the price tag for the Asia and Pacific region at
between 7 trillion U.S. dollars and 9.7 trillion U.S. dollars.

The report’s author could not be reached for comment Thursday, but an
ADB spokesperson said a detailed break-down of investment requirements
was likely to be released in December.

Although nearly 80 percent of the region’s energy needs in 2030 would
still have to be met by fossil fuels — coal, oil and natural gas –
the report said that more than 60 percent of the total investment in
the region’s energy sector would need to be in electricity generation,
transmission and distribution.

In Cambodia just 20 percent of households are connected to the national
grid, which is fragmented into isolated power systems centered on
provincial towns and cities. Around 75 percent of the country’s energy
needs are currently met by the burning of biomass.

Connecting the entire country to the grid would be expensive,
especially in rural areas where greater distances between dwellings
exponentially raised the cost, said Rogier Van Mansvelt, a rural energy
expert and consultant to the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Energy.
Government attempts to promote private investment in the sector, which
could also result in higher prices for electricity, as investors need
to make a return on their money, he added.

The ADB report said renewable energy technologies such as solar
heating, biogas for cooking, and solar and wind power generation were
potential options for extending energy to rural areas.

It also said Cambodia was looking to better exploit indigenous energy
resources, namely coal and hydroelectricity, as a way of bringing down
prices and boosting industrial-sector development. With power stations
in the country tending to be fueled by imported diesel, Cambodia has
the highest electricity prices in the ASEAN region, it added.

Source: Xinhua

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