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Cambodia’s Han Seng military plant in Oddar Meanchey province, part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, is idle as construction delays push back the deadline for approval (Image ©: Anton L. Delgado/Southeast Asia Globe)
Anton L Delgado
November 17, November 202317, 2023
The outer skeleton of one of Cambodia’s last coal-fired power plants lay quietly amid farmland in the kingdom’s northwestern Oddar Meanchey province. On a quiet June afternoon, the undergrowth tangled in piles of bricks, cement mixers, and truck tires showed that it had been standing tall long ago.
Residents toasting satisfied on the street complained of months of delays in paying on-site security guards, adding that no date had been set for the resumption of operations. There is hardly any more data in the municipality of Ou Svay.
“Maybe the plan has changed to finalize the structure by 2025?asked Roeun Phearin, a municipal representative of the Han Seng power plant. “Construction is now suspended and we know the explanation, as this is internal corporate information. “
Cambodia switched to coal in 2020, doubling down on fossil fuels, and plans to expand three coal-fired power plants to meet growing demand for electricity.
The move was opposed by the empty energy initiative and dismayed sustainability advocates. But the announced plants now face years of delays, raising questions about when or if the kingdom’s last coal projects will come online.
At the time of its announcement, the three factories were part of the Belt and Road Initiative focused on China’s global infrastructure. But while China’s pledge in 2021 to reduce its overseas coal aid wiped out projects elsewhere in Southeast Asia, its plans for Cambodia gave the impression of a chopping block.
The Southeast Asia Globe has documented a series of projects in three provinces, such as Cambodia’s first coal-fired power plant. Of those three sites – which the Cambodian government has committed to be its last coal-fired power plants – two are in different stages of inertia. The 3rd is finished and operational.
In the deeply rural province of Oddar Meanchey, the 265-megawatt (MW) semi-built Han Seng project missed a deadline to come online last year. They’re sticking with the coal, but now they’re also investing in solar power at the same plant.
Meanwhile, off the coast in Cambodia’s southwestern province of Koh Kong, the politically linked conglomerate Royal Group has yet to even begin the structure of a 700 MW power plant that will come online this year. Former citizens of the region denounce unfair agreements and brutal evictions.
Just across the bay from Kampong Som in Sihanoukville province, the Cambodia International Investment Development Group’s (CIIDG) new 700 MW coal allocation appears to be one of three that have met their intended finishing touch targets.
Just down the same street, in the Steung Hav district, is another power plant, the 250 MW coal complex of Cambodia Energy Limited (CEL), which is the first of its kind in the kingdom. Local citizens fear the effects these plants may have. about your physical condition and the environment.
“It’s not smart for us,” said Hang Dara, a fisherman who quit his job as an electrician at CEL because of fitness problems. “But it’s going to be a lot worse for the next generation in this province because they now have even more coal projects. “
In his speech to the UN in 2021, and to remain “committed to harmony between other peoples and nature”, President Xi Jinping promised that China would prevent the construction of coal-fired power projects abroad and intensify its commitment to renewable and low consumption energy. carbon strength.
As the main financier and supplier of coal-fired power plant equipment, China’s announcement was hailed as a first step toward achieving the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature rise by reducing greenhouse fuel emissions.
The fate of 77 Chinese-backed coal projects around the world, which were in breakthrough stages before Xi’s commitment, was still uncertain in October, according to the Helsinki-founded Center for Energy and Clean Air Research (CREA).
Almost some of those power plants are thought to be found in Southeast Asia.
If the 37 projects in Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines operated for their usual lifespan of 25 to 30 years, AERC calculated they would emit a total of about 4. 23 billion tonnes of carbon. That’s slightly less than the U. S. total. emissions only during the past year, the outlet said.
The 3 coal projects in Cambodia continued after China’s commitment; 14 power plants were officially canceled in Indonesia and Vietnam, according to CREA, canceling 15. 6 gigawatts of coal-fired power generation.
“With blank force prices falling very dramatically and coal prices rising, the Cambodian government has an opportunity to reassess whether those coal-fired power plants are the way to meet Cambodia’s strength needs,” he said. said Lauri Myllyvirta, senior analyst at CREA.
Cambodia is in a particularly precarious situation, Myllyvirta said, as the country is largely dependent on coal imports.
“The sharp swings in coal prices and global coal markets over the past three years have obviously demonstrated the economic dangers of dependence on fossil fuels,” he said, adding that price fluctuations “would become more volatile. ” .
In 2021, Cambodia imported about $222 million worth of coal, according to data from the UN’s Comtrade knowledge base processed through the Harvard Growth Lab’s Atlas of Economic Complexity.
The trade data underscores Indonesia’s role as Cambodia’s largest coal exporter for more than a decade. Nearly 85% of Cambodia’s coal imports between 2012 and 2021 came from the country.
Zulfikar Yurnaidi, a senior official at the ASEAN Energy Center in Jakarta, told Myllyvirta that the future of coal is increasingly uncertain. Yurnaidi said foreign “allergy” to the product remains an unresolved factor within ASEAN.
“We cannot wish for the early demise of coal and fossil fuels,” Yurnaidi said. “The help of foreign monetary institutions is needed. Maybe not to install a dirty power plant, but to help us achieve the ultimate goal of reducing emissions by upgrading fossil fuels and investing in renewables.
As financing for coal dries up, external climate finance is higher in Southeast Asia, with millions of Americans committed to “just force” transitions in Vietnam and Indonesia. After the Third Belt and Road Forum in mid-October, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet announced that China’s state-owned military corporations had offered the kingdom more than $600 million to finance renewable energy projects.
Despite foreign funding, Yurnaidi said ASEAN’s economic expansion means the bloc will continue to want coal as member states turn to renewable energy sources.
“ASEAN is a very large group with many millions of people and a GDP in the billions,” Yurnaidi said. “With the transition of power, we know that this group wants to make a turn. But we can’t make a sudden detour, because then everyone would fall into the sea. “
Cambodia’s commitment to coal turns out to include this idea.
In the wake of Covid-19, Cambodia’s Energy Development Master Plan charts the course for the country’s energy expansion from 2022 to 2040 and forecasts a steady increase in domestic energy demand.
The first five years of the plan’s “energy scenarios” prioritize the progression of Cambodia’s proposed list of three new coal production sites.
At a pre-COP26 assembly in 2021, Cambodia’s Minister of Mines and Energy, Suy Sem, said the country would approve more coal projects.
Years of delays in the construction of two of the three power plants have some experts wary of a possible power shortage. Chea Sophorn, a force allocation manager who specializes in the development of renewable forces, said the shortage will depend on how temporarily the kingdom’s post-Covid economy recovers and the demand for forces.
But as foreign investors move away from fossil fuels, Sophorn noted that it would possibly be difficult to revive the two stalled projects.
“What kind of investor will continue to fund abandoned assets like this?” Sophorn asked, explaining that without China, there is little to no standing to turn to such projects.
Cheap Sour, an official at the Ministry of Mines and Energy, declined to comment and referred the Southeast Asia Globe to ministry spokesman Heng Kunleang, who left the text message and voicemails from the Globe on “read. “Eung Dipola, Director-General of the Ministry of Mines and Energy. Minerals Department, not available for comment.
At Oddar Meanchey, monetary difficulties have already forced the corporations funding the $370 million Han Seng plant to replace their minds.
State-owned Guodian Kangneng Technology Stock Co Ltd suffered a big drop in shareholder profits in the first part of last year and hired a new contractor, Huazi International, in September.
Plans to install 265 MW of solar power have not changed, but Huazi has since announced plans to install 200 MW of solar capacity at the site. This is the first time that a type of force generation has been connected to Han Seng’s troubled force plant.
Just two kilometers from the semi-constructed allocation site, the Yun Khean coal mine, which will house the plant, is operating normally.
Boy Troch, who lives just steps away from the mine’s slag heaps, believes mining operations have infected the groundwater beneath his farm, damaging crops and harming wildlife.
“A lot of land is affected by the mine, but the village and commune chiefs don’t care,” Troch said, pointing to the displaced slag lots in front of his farm.
With his grandchildren by his side, Troch said he fears coal mining will proliferate in his district if the power plant comes online.
“We are afraid to protest because our voice is not heard,” Troch said. “We are people. We are even more afraid that we will be evicted from those lands. “
On Koh Kong, accounts of evicted citizens would possibly verify those fears.
Royal Group, one of Cambodia’s largest investment conglomerates with direct ties to former Prime Minister Hun Sen, won a land concession of approximately 170 hectares in Botum Sakor National Park in 2020 for the coal-fired power plant.
People living in the area without land titles have complained of brutal evictions for which they have not been compensated. Former resident Keo Khorn’s home was demolished in 2021 by a government task force. Along with 37 other deportees, he sought reparations.
“We all got together to complain about the company,” Khorn said. “Everyone listened to us, the provincial ministries and the national ministries. But no one did anything.
The assignment site has been empty lately, but staff are clearing forests around the site. These areas, also in the national park, were ceded this year to Royal Group as part of a second land concession of nearly 10,000 hectares.
When contacted, Thomas Pianka, from Royal Group’s energy department, categorically refused to speak to reporters from the Southeast Asia Globe.
“No, I don’t want to communicate with you,” he said before hanging up.
Where coal-fired power plants operate, in Sihanoukville province, citizens have other concerns.
A security guard at the former CEL said other employees had told him about health issues, but said the company never talked about any risks.
Where the guard lives, the village’s deputy chief, Ly Socheat, said he receives court cases about the smell of the power plant. Socheat said many families in his village have stopped collecting rainwater for fear of coal pollution.
Although she attended several meetings about potential job opportunities at the power plant, Socheat said she was never informed of the conceivable impacts on fitness.
Locals complain of respiratory disorders and headaches, but coal-fired power plants have also been linked to cancer. In 2019, it is estimated that by 2025, 1. 37 million cases of lung cancer worldwide will be linked to these plants.
In coastal waters, fisherman Hang Dara told why he quit his job as an electrician at CEL to catch crabs near the power station. He believed that the water discharged from the factory heated the bay and harmed the environment.
“I’m very worried about my physical condition,” said Dara, who explained that he suffered severe headaches and chronic coughing while running on the power plant. “But now I’m very concerned about the physical condition of the fish. “
While Dara was near the bow, her fisherman spouse, Loy Chaeum, departed from the stern. As they walked past the coal loading docks that powered the two power plants, Chaeum excitedly pointed to an Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, classified as a vulnerable species. Come to the surface to breathe.
“I don’t see many dolphins now; They don’t like coal. Like us, they have to travel farther and farther to survive,” said Chaeum, who explained that he crosses the bay every morning in search of a bigger catch. .
This brings it closer to Koh Kong, where a coal-fired power plant would possibly one day be located.
“If they build it, there will be nowhere for them or us to pass,” he said as he returned to land after seeing the dolphin.
Additional reporting provided through Andrew Haffner, with translations via Sophanna Lay and Nasa Dip.
This article was funded through a news reporting grant from Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Cambodia. It was first published through the Southeast Asia Globe and is republished here with permission. It may not be republished without permission from the Southeast Asia Globe.
We inspire you to republish China Dialogue articles, online or in print, under the Creative Commons license. Read our reposting rules to get started.
Anton Delgado
Anton L Delgado is a multimedia journalist based in Cambodia who covers news and the environment of the region for the Southeast Asia Globe.
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