Modernisation of the electricity transmission and distribution network in Cambodia

Cambodia is one of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in Southeast Asia, but enjoys strong growth in the face of major challenges in developing its electricity generation, transmission and distribution capacity throughout the whole country. 

The needs are significant in a country where less than half of households, mostly located in urban areas, have access to electricity, at some of the highest rates in the world. Therefore, the government has set ambitious targets for electricity access: Connect 100% of villages in Cambodia to the national network by 2020 and 90% of households by 2030.

This project aims to support EDC’s digital transformation, in order to improve the efficiency of the transmission and distribution network, as well as the management of its assets. It also increases the possibilities of integrating intermittent renewable energies into the network. 

The project to achieve the digital transformation of EDC has four components: improvement of the national distribution network, improvement of the distribution network in Phnom Penh and its region, supporting modernisation of the IT system and enterprise asset management and boosting training and research capacity. 

These activities will be accompanied by a capacity-building plan whose goal is to incorporate such changes into EDC’s operations over the medium term.

The main expected impacts of this project are:

• Reduction in the duration of power outages by 30%;
• Reduction in energy losses by 0.5%;
• Maintaining the stability of the network in a scenario of integrating new power generation capacity from intermittent renewable energies higher than 100 megawatts;
• Capacity development and improvement of management effectiveness in the EDC network;
• Reduction of CO2 emissions by 2025 are estimated at 12,000 tCO2 per year.