Phnom Penh: According to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, 25 September will be the official date to shut the dam down temporally. Sesan 2 Dam is currently the biggest water dam in Cambodia that would supply 400 MW of power values at approximately $781 million that has been developing since 2004. The dam will provide electric power to the residents of Phnom Penh City, Kompong Cham Province, Kratie Province, and Steung Treng Province. However, the dam has caused a lot of conflicts between the local residents and the environments in Cambodia.

Locked into a stalemate, local authorities are brainstorming in an effort to come up with a way to remove the hold-outs before the official inauguration on 25 September.

Locals told to leave dam before PM’s visit
15 Sept 2017
- Stung Treng provincial authorities held a meeting with the Mines and Energy Ministry on Wednesday to find ways to convince people refusing to leave their homes near the Lower Sesan II hydropower dam to accept compensation and vacate their land before Prime Minister HE inaugurates the facility on September 25.

Mines and Energy Minister Suy Sem said 87 percent of people in the area had already left to make way for the dam development. But about 143 indigenous families affected have rejected compensation and defiantly refused to vacate their ancestral lands, even while being flooded by dam tests, and intimidated by local authorities in Kbal Romeas and Sre Ko communes.

With Mr HE set to inaugurate the dam soon, authorities scrambled to brainstorm ways to convince the remaining holdouts during a meeting on Wednesday.

Srekor commune chief Seak Mekong said the authorities plea for holdouts to abandon their land before September 25 fell on deaf ears.
“The authority wants the villagers left to accept compensation and move, but when I came to ask them yesterday, they said they still do not accept any offers,” he said.

Dam Samnag, a defiant villager who remains, said any amount of money or land will not satisfy them.
“The lands are too important to us,” he said.“We are an indigenous group that wants to remains on its ancestral lands.”
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5083085/loc ... pms-visit/

The dam was officially inaugurated by the Cambodian PM along with the Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia today on schedule.

Chinese-built biggest dam in Cambodia to start operation in November
Xinhua | Updated: 2017-09-25 14:57

STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — The 400-megawatt Lower Sesan II Hydropower Plant, which is Cambodia's biggest hydropower dam so far, will start operation in November after almost four years of construction.

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo HE and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Xiong Bo presided over a ceremony to close the dam's water gates on Monday.

According to a report by Cambodian Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem, the plant has eight turbines and each turbine has installed capacity of 50 megawatts.
The construction of the whole project is almost completed, as the first turbine will be put into operation in November, and all of the 8 turbines will be fully operational in October 2018, he said.

The project is a joint venture among China's Huaneng Hydrolancang International Energy holding 51 percent of the stake, Cambodia's Royal Group owning 39 percent and Vietnamese EVN International Joint Stock Company possessing 10 percent.

The project is a concessional contract of a 45-year build-operate-transfer (BOT), of which, 5 years for construction and 40 years for operations, the minister said, adding that the plant is estimated to produce 1.9 billion kilowatt-hour per year and the electricity will be sold to the Electricity of Cambodia at the fixed price of 6.95 cents per kilowatt-hour.

The plant could generate tax revenue about $30 million per year when it is fully operational...
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2 ... 462600.htm

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2017 11:47 pm The dam was officially inaugurated by the Cambodian PM along with the Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia today on schedule.

Chinese-built biggest dam in Cambodia to start operation in November
Xinhua | Updated: 2017-09-25 14:57

STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — The 400-megawatt Lower Sesan II Hydropower Plant, which is Cambodia's biggest hydropower dam so far, will start operation in November after almost four years of construction.

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo HE and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Xiong Bo presided over a ceremony to close the dam's water gates on Monday.

According to a report by Cambodian Minister of Mines and Energy Suy Sem, the plant has eight turbines and each turbine has installed capacity of 50 megawatts.
The construction of the whole project is almost completed, as the first turbine will be put into operation in November, and all of the 8 turbines will be fully operational in October 2018, he said.

The project is a joint venture among China's Huaneng Hydrolancang International Energy holding 51 percent of the stake, Cambodia's Royal Group owning 39 percent and Vietnamese EVN International Joint Stock Company possessing 10 percent.

The project is a concessional contract of a 45-year build-operate-transfer (BOT), of which, 5 years for construction and 40 years for operations, the minister said, adding that the plant is estimated to produce 1.9 billion kilowatt-hour per year and the electricity will be sold to the Electricity of Cambodia at the fixed price of 6.95 cents per kilowatt-hour.

The plant could generate tax revenue about $30 million per year when it is fully operational...
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2 ... 462600.htm

They better start putting up the wires then, because at the moment there's thousands of high voltage masts between the dam and Phnom Penh, but there's really long stretches without any wiring in place. Just wondering where all that power will go....

UPDATE: The official opening of the Lower Sesan II Dam in December will be conducted the Cambodian Prime Minister HE himself.

HE to inaugurate final phase of ‘controversial’ dam
16 November 2018
The government plans to inaugurate the controversial Lower Sesan II hydropower dam in the “middle of next month”, in a ceremony that will be presided over by Prime Minister HE, a Stung Treng provincial authority spokesman said on Wednesday.

Stung Treng provincial Mines and Energy department director Nou Sovannara told The Post on Wednesday that he was optimistic the project would improve the livelihoods of people in the province.

However, the dam project in the province, which is near the border with Laos, has not been without controversy.
It has displaced around 1,500 households and flooded tens of thousands of hectares of forest in Stung Treng’s Sesan district.
Conservation groups have also long warned of the damage the dam may cause to the ecosystem along that part of the Mekong River system.

[However] Stung Treng provincial authority spokesman Men Kong said the hydropower plant will have the capacity to supply electricity to everybody in the province.
In the next phase, the government plans to distribute the electricity it generates to other provinces.

A $781.52 million joint project between China-based Hydrolancang International Energy, Vietnam-based EVN International and Cambodia’s Royal Group, the dam will be privately operated before being handed over to the government after 40 years.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... ersial-dam

Here's an old CEO thread on the long-running saga of the construction of the Lower Sesan II Dam, where animist curses of ethnic minority villagers attempt to combat World Bank loans, the Cambodian government, and Chinese, Vietnamese, and Cambodian investment groups. : newsworthy/curse-the-dammed-t4118.html? ... esan%20dam

Lower Sesan II plant set to launch
14 December 2018 | 09:14 ICT
The Hydropower Lower Sesan II power plant, which will be launched next week, is set to add another 20 per cent to the Kingdom’s current total electricity production, said a senior official of the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

The plant has a total electricity generating capacity of 400 megawatts, which will bring the total amount of hydropower produced by Cambodia to 1,328 megawatts.

The dam, which is located in Stung Treng province, is constructed on 36,000ha with a height of 80m, of which 75m serves as water preservation and the remaining five meters reserved to avert the risk of excess water.

The project is a joint investment by Chinese firm Hydrolancang International Energy Co Ltd, which holds 51 per cent of its shares, Royal Group (39 percent), while the rest is held by a Vietnamese-owned company, EVN, with a total investment of more than $800 million.

Ministry spokesman Victor Jona said that after trial launches, the power plant will officially be launched next week.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/ ... set-launch

Stung Treng, Cambodia News: The Lower Sesan 2 Hydropower Dam, Cambodia's first large-scale hydroelectric development project was opened officially this morning, 17 December 2018, by HE the Prime minister of Cambodia.

Arget wrote: ↑Mon Dec 17, 2018 1:53 pm Such a happy enthusiastic crowd...... They must have been waiting with baited breath for this occasion to see the dam that will benefit them and improve their lives.

No, they are happy cause when the water level drops they will have a unpolluted sandy beach.

Cambodia's biggest hydropower dam now producing electricity
Associated Press Dec 17, 2018 Updated 2 min ago
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia's largest hydropower project officially began producing electricity Monday as the country tries to increase its energy capacity to reduce energy imports and help jump-start industrial expansion.

Prime Minister HE inaugurated the 400-megawatt Lower Sesan II hydropower dam in the northeastern province of Stung Treng. The project, constructed on a build-operate-transfer basis, will boost the country's production of electricity by 20 percent, according to the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

It was built over four years at a cost of nearly $800 million and is a joint venture of China's Hydrolancang International Energy, which has a 51 percent stake, Cambodia's Royal Group with 39 percent and Vietnam's EVN International with 10 percent.

The dam is expected to bring in almost $30 million in tax revenue yearly. Ownership will be handed over to the government after 40 years.

Opponents say the dam will damage the biodiversity of two tributaries of the Mekong River and devastate the livelihoods and homes of thousands of people. As many as 100,000 people could lose the ability to catch fish.

The dam is the seventh commercial-scale hydropower dam in Cambodia, bringing hydropower production to 1,328 megawatts.
https://thesouthern.com/news/world/camb ... 9ba24.html