The Ministry of Electric Power announced on May 30 that it will resume supplying five hours a day of electricity to 18 industrial zones in Yangon Region, but told small- and medium-sized enterprises outside the zones to remain off the national grid and rely solely on generators.
The supply will be either from 7am to 12pm or from 12pm to 5pm.
U Nyan Tun Oo said on May 28 that power depended on rainfall. “It depends on the amount of rainfall. Hydropower relies on water in the [reservoirs of] dams … if there is not enough rain then we cannot generate enough power.”
Yangon Region Minister for Electric Power and Industry U Nyan Tun Oo said cold-storage operators would be given priority because they need electricity 24 hours a day.
Yangon Region Chief Minister U Myint Swe agreed, saying these factories – primarily food-processing plants – have the greatest need because their raw materials and finished products rely on refrigeration.
Industrial zones in Yangon and Mandalay regions lost their state-supplied power in early May, with an official announcement made on May 6, but factory owners said cuts began in late April, forcing them to rely solely on diesel-powered generator.
U Myint Swe said the regional government had been pushing the ministry to resupply economic zones and requested that they receive state-supplied power 24 hours a day by the end of May.
“If they couldn’t do that we asked them to provide as much electricity as possible,” he said, adding that state-owned factories will be shut temporarily and electricity diverted from them to economic zones.
U Myint Swe said demand for electricity is rising faster than the amount the ministry can supply.
“Every year we strive to meet rising demand but cannot. We will keep trying and build more power stations … we cannot let this electricity-shortage situation continue,” he added.
Electricity supply is at its lowest from March until May because most state-supplied power is generated by hydroelectric projects, which require rainfall to fill their reservoirs. Demand also peaks during these months as homes and offices use more power for air conditioning.
When industrial zones were removed from the grid manufacturing slumped. Some factories shut while others reduced operating hours because of the high cost of diesel to run generators.
Some factory owners said surging diesel prices doubled the cost of production.
It is “impossible” for factories to operate without state-supplied electricity, Hlaing Tharyar Industrial chairman Zone U Myat Thin Aung said.
“Even two hours of electricity a day makes a difference because factories run for at least eight hours a day. It’s impossible to run a factory for eight hours a day on generators all the time,” he added.
He said higher production costs reduced competitiveness as well as salaries because factories either shut or reduced shifts, which meant they could not pay bonuses or overtime.
Six generating plants are being built to generate more electricity for the national grid, which is also being expanded, U Myint Swe said. Combined, they will generate an additional 1360 megawatts of electricity when they are completed in October, he added.