Twenty years ago, only 16.6 percent of the Cambodian population had access to electricity. As of 2019, that access had increased to 93 percent, with a large portion thanks to off-grid energy including solar home systems, solar lanterns, and rechargeable batteries.
Last year, 81 percent of all households were connected to the electricity grid, and more than 97 percent of all villages were covered or in the vicinity of grid infrastructure. As a result, the World Bank has recognised Cambodia as having one of the highest rates of electrification in the world.
This impressive growth in electrification has been achieved, in part, due to significant reductions in electricity tariffs and the roll-out of a national uniform tariff and the improvement of the quality and availability of power.
Now, Cambodia’s electrification challenge is providing power to the remaining 3 percent of remote, inland, island, and mountain villages where grid extensions aren’t viable or difficult to install.
To address this challenge, the Australian government funded 3i (Investing in Infrastructure) has launched a new AUD 2 million off-grid electricity project in partnership with Ministry of Mine and Energy, Electricity Authority of Cambodia and Electricite Du Cambodge, with funding from Australia’s AUD 232 million regional program, Mekong-Australia Partnership (MAP). This initiative represents Australia’s enhanced support to partner countries under the MAP on economic and environmental resilience improvement.
The project will support the Royal Government of Cambodia in delivering high-quality, safe, and affordable electricity to all Cambodians through stimulating private investment in clean and renewable energy for remote locations without electricity grids. The project will also contribute significantly to Cambodia’s climate change commitments to reduce current levels of CO2 emissions by 42 percent before 2030.
H.E. Ty Norin, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Mines and Energy, noted during the launch of the project that “bringing reliable and affordable electricity to all people in Cambodia is a priority for MME.”
“This requires special attention from the Cambodian Government to bridge the gap and find innovative ways to accelerate access in off-grid areas. I appreciate the support from the Australian Government to electrify these areas with renewable energy mini-grids,” Norin added.
Former Deputy Ambassador of the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh, Luke Arnold, also noted the important part that reliable electricity plays in economic growth, “Connecting communities to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy will transform lives, allowing people to start small businesses, access quality education and reach their full potential.”
He explained that the project’s public-private model will stimulate significant additional investment from the private sector and drive technology as well as business model innovation. The project’s ultimate goal is to provide a blueprint for further off-grid electrification in Cambodia and other countries in the Mekong sub-region using renewable energy technologies.
3i’s off-grid electrification project aims to electrify a minimum of 2,000 households, potentially up to 4,000, with renewable energy mini-grids. The project is being structured as a challenge fund to drive value-for-money and stimulate both technology and business model innovation by using current available technology and solutions for this project
“The competitive process is expected to attract private sector capital to fund a significant portion of the investment in generation and distribution infrastructure and achieve commercial viability and sustainability,” adds Kvammen.
Australia Government’s Support for Electrification
Built on a public-private partnership model with the goal of providing more than one million rural Cambodians with access to reliable electricity and clean, piped treated water, 3i has co-invested with 13 rural electricity enterprises, or operators, since launching. The program aims to extend electrical grids in rural Cambodia, speed up the electricity expansion network, transmission, and distribution to those locations without electrical grids and pioneer off-grid electrification solution for remote villages.
"Connecting communities to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy will transform lives."
To date, 3i has stimulated investments that have connected more than 31,000 Cambodian households to the electricity grid with total combined investment of about AUD 11.8 million from both the program and electricity operators. The program has leveraged over AUD 9.02 million in infrastructure investment from the private sector.
The program also co-invested in a licensed electricity operator in Kampong Thom province’s Tum Ring district to build and operate a hybrid solar PV and battery storage system connected to an existing diesel generator and biomass operated power plant. The addition of the Renewable Energy power plant enabled the operator to expand coverage from less than 500 families to more than 1,000.
“People in my community are happier with the access to more reliable electricity with slight decrease of price,” says Ty Seang, Tum Ring Rural Electricity Enterprise owner. “The electricity generation has become greener.”
“With a solar hybrid system in place, more households have been supplied with stable electricity,” adds Morten Kvammen, Finance Adviser to 3i. “More importantly, there is a significant reduction of diesel and firewood usage, cutting down on the emission of pollutants to the environment and less deforestation.”
With more reliable electricity come more developments in both social and economic spheres. SME businesses can expand and save money on the costs of electricity, and new businesses and jobs across basic retail and market operations, services, construction, and agricultural sectors are further enabled through access to electricity.
Australia is also supporting Cambodia to develop a Variable Renewable Energy Assessment and Integration Strategy (RAIS) to strengthen links between Australian and Cambodian energy institutions. Through renewable energy potential assessments commissioned by 3i, it was found that Cambodia has significant abundant renewable energy potential, specifically for solar and wind energy, and could generate renewable energy up to 44GW, and 6GW respectively, which is more than enough to electrify all villages in Cambodia.
Sornnimul Khut is the Communications Manager for 3i. 3i is implemented by Palladium and funded by Australian Government through Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). The challenge fund application is open, and more information is available on 3i’s website.
Cambodia has one of the lowest electrification rates in Southeast Asia: roughly half of Cambodia''s population does not have access to the electric grid. While the country has seen relatively strong economic growth over the last two decades, a majority of the population lives in under-resourced, rural areas. This has led to a large divide between those who live in the capital of Phnom Penh, nearly all of whom have electricity, and the more than half of Cambodia''s rural residents who do not have energy access. Those living without energy access and in under-resourced areas are also the most vulnerable to detrimental impacts of climate change, and, importantly, would gain the most from having access to electricity.
While solar-powered home systems have been installed in some Cambodian homes, the systems only serve a single household, and power from these single-home systems is not shared, leading to a loss of roughly one-third of the electricity generated by these systems.
Community Microgrids: A Scalable, Equitable Solution
Okra Solar has developed a creative solution, where the excess power not used by one household can be shared with the rest of the community. Thanks to Okra''s new DC mesh grid microgrid network, integrating both existing distribution, local power generation and storage, and smart data software, nearly 150,000 households in the rural village of Steung Chrov can now benefit from reliable access to clean, renewable energy. According to Okra Solar''s founder Afnan Hannan, the company is "unlocking the potential of villages and micro-entrepreneurs" through these ''smart'' microgrids.
The project was funded through Cambodia''s Ministry of Mines and Energy along with support from the Electricity Authority of Cambodia and the United Nations Development Program.
Leveraging the Power of Connectivity
Direct Current (DC) Mesh Grids vs. Alternating Current (AC)
According to Okra Solar operations manager Otteh Edubio, a key benefit of their system is that the DC mesh grid "can be installed for a fraction of the cost of a typical AC mini-grid." In a centralized storage and generation system, there is often the need to ''oversize'' the system—that is, to provide more power than is needed–in order to account for the energy demand of the entire community, as well as to compensate for electricity loss due to transmission at greater distances to remote households in the network. However, in a mesh microgrid system, electricity is both generated and used by individual households, with extra power shared with nearby homes.
AC is best for transmitting energy over long distances, which is why the AC system is the primary system used for distribution in a larger electric grid. However, for shorter distances, such as in the Steung Chrov village''s mesh grid, DC systems are ideal. Most appliances and wall outlets use DC, so using a DC grid avoids the need to convert from AC (used in transmission) to DC (for use), a conversion that leads to loss of roughly 10 percent of the energy. As a result, DC microgrids are more efficient than their AC counterparts.
Okra Pod: Empowering Local Residents Through Electricity
Thanks to this mesh system, almost all the households in Steung Chrov have their own solar and battery system that can power small appliances. Okra Solar''s system uses the Okra Pod, a DC-to-DC controller system that converts the energy from the solar installations to a safer, lower voltage that is used to charge the batteries, enabling residents to plug in appliances including refrigerators, phone chargers, rice cookers, and lighting, and even charge electric scooters and bikes. In this way, the system provides critical services, increases community safety (particularly at nighttime), improves resident comfort, and promotes economic development and entrepreneurship through powering appliances necessary for home businesses.
Additionally, Okra Solar''s monitoring software can identify and communicate potential issues, which, combined with the much lower transmission voltage of the local systems, allow residents to fix problems themselves. Diagnosing and communicating problems among users and enabling local repairs not only reduces maintenance costs but also provides community employment opportunities.
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