KOH KONG, Cambodia, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The China-invested Upper Tatay pumped storage hydropower BOT project, Cambodia's first gigawatt-scale pumped storage hydropower station, broke ground for construction on Friday in southwestern Cambodia's Koh Kong province, which is expected to lend strong steam to the Southeast Asian country's green energy drive.
With a total investment of nearly 1 billion U.S. dollars and a total installed capacity of 1,000 megawatts, the project, upon completion, will be equipped with four 250-MW single-stage vertical shaft reversible pump-turbine units.
The pumped storage hydropower station is a large-scale rechargeable battery system that stores energy by moving water between two reservoirs at different elevations.
During low demand, excess electricity pumps water uphill to an upper reservoir, and when demand spikes, water flows down to turn turbines, generating electricity.
Located in the Tatay River basin, it is expected to undertake core tasks of Cambodia's power system, including energy storage, peak regulation, valley filling, and new energy accommodation.
Speaking at the ceremony, Cambodian Minister of Mines and Energy Keo Ratanak called the project a historic project in Cambodia, as it is the first time that Cambodia has authorized the construction of a pumped storage hydropower project.
This project truly reflected the two countries' shared commitment to developing green energy as the world is facing an oil and gas crisis, he noted.
"It will contribute to increasing Cambodia's clean energy from more than 63 percent in 2025 to over 70 percent in 2030," he said.
The pumped storage hydropower station, a key project in China-Cambodia production capacity cooperation echoing the Belt and Road Initiative, is the core of the integrated wind-solar-hydro-storage base in the Tatay River basin, according to the project's Chinese investors.
Upon completion, the power station will function as a "green power bank," significantly improving grid peak shaving and renewable energy consumption, according to Xiao Ping, chairman of China National Heavy Machinery Corporation.
China has played an important role in facilitating Cambodia's improvement of its electricity network and its green energy shift.
"Energy is the key sector of pragmatic cooperation between China and Cambodia," said Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Wang Wenbin. "Many hydropower stations, invested and built by Chinese enterprises, have become a vigorous catalyst for the stable supply of electricity and the development of renewable energy in Cambodia."
Since 2010, a series of power plant projects invested in and built by Chinese companies in Cambodia have helped raise the country's national electricity access rate from about 50 percent to nearly 96 percent, and increased the share of clean energy to over 63 percent, the second-highest among ASEAN member states.
China-invested hydropower stations help reduce reliance on imported energy, stabilize tariffs, and support industrial growth, said Thong Mengdavid, deputy director at the China-ASEAN Studies Center of the Cambodia University of Technology and Science.
They also contribute to the gradual development of technical skills among Cambodian workers through on-the-job training and operational experience, Mengdavid added.■
