Project rush boosts VPower Group's capacity by 70%

It secured utility-like projects in Myanmar and Sri Lanka over a few months.

VPower Group popped the champagne in 2019 as its 509MW new capacity marks a 70% increase of installed capacity by the end of the first half of the year, according to HSBC.

It had been picking up pace in securing new utility-like Investment, Building and Operating (IBO) projects over the past few months in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, two of the company’s existing markets, noted Evan Li, head of Asia Utilities and Conglomerates Research at HSBC.

Notably, its 900MW LNG-to-power project in Myanmar is expected to take up 14% of the national power mix.

On 10 February 2020, the company announced the 50/50 JV partner for the 900MW LNG-to-power projects in Myanmar to be China National Technical Import & Export Corporation (CNTIC) – subsidiary of a SASAC enterprise, where the original tender was awarded to the consortium on 9 Oct 2019 with a tenor of five years.

Also read: Hong Kong-listed VPower Group to co-develop 900MW power projects in Myanmar

Li added, “This project will ease the power shortages currently being faced by Myanmar by boosting installed capacity of the country by 16% to c.5.6GW by December 2018, according to the Ministry of Electricity and Energy of Myanmar (MOEE). Whilst Myanmar is planning to double the nation’s power capacity in the next five years, the mix of LNG-to-power is targeted to quadruple to 26% by 2025 (2020: aimed at 6%), implying a 50% CAGR for the subset of LNG-to-power generation.”