PHNOM PENH, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Electricity demand in Cambodia had surged to 4,014 megawatts (MWs) in 2021, an increase of 1 percent from 3,972 MWs in the year before, the Electricity Authority of Cambodia (EAC) said in a report released on Wednesday.
Some 3,033 MWs were generated locally by hydroelectric dams, coal-fired power plants, diesel-fired power plants, solar power plants and biomass power plants, and 981 MWs were imported from neighboring Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, the report said.
Main electricity sources in Cambodia are hydroelectric dams and coal-fired power plants. The kingdom has seven Chinese built hydropower dams with a total capacity of 1,328 MWs and three coal-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 675 MWs.
"Electricity is essential not only for people's daily lives, but also for the development of industries, handicrafts, trade, agriculture, and tourism, which are the key pillars for Cambodia's economic growth," EAC's chairman Yim Viseth said during the EAC's annual conference on Wednesday.
According to the report, the electricity demand in the Southeast Asian nation is expected to increase further by another 5.8 percent to 4,247 MWs this year thanks to a post-COVID-19 pandemic economic recovery.
The report also showed that some 13,818 villages, or 97.53 percent, out of the kingdom's 14,168 villages have access to electricity.
The remaining 350 villages, or 2.47 percent, have not been connected to the grid because of geographical difficulties, it added. ■