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Friday, January 21 4:20 PM SGT
Prospects for China's Yunnan Hydropower BrightKUNMING, China Jan 21 Asia Pulse - The market prospects for hydropower development in Yunnan province are very bright as there is a big demand from other provinces of China and from Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia.Sources revealed that China had extended the time limit of repayment of loans and interests to 25-30 years, thus dramatically reducing investment cost of hydropower development. The demand for installed capacity from Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos will reach 40.15 million kW but the current capacities of the five countries are only 19.85 million kW. The gap between demand and supply of electric power will be widened to 52.68 million kW by 2010. What is worth noting is that reliable power transmission lines are available from Yunnan to all the five countries. Prices of electricity are also very competitive in the five countries with that in 1999 averaging 314 yuan per thousand kwh, one third that in Myanmar, one fourth that in Thailand and two thirds that in Vietnam. Domestic market prospects for electricity from Yunnan Province are also very broad. Yunnan Province annually produces 175,000 tons of yellow phosphorus and consumes huge amounts of electricity. Experts here predicted that if GDP of Yunnan Province grows at an annual 8% from now on, the provincial electricity demand will grow from 26.5 billion kwh to 59 billion kwh by 2010. In addition, Yunnan province transmits 900 million kwh of electricity to Guangdong Province during flood seasons. The demand for electricity in anti-flood operations also comes from many other provinces along the Yangtze River. (XIC) |