Border people paying high for homegrown electricity

People in Shan State North’s Muse and Namkham townships, opposite China’s Ruili, are still required to pay high for electricity fees even though it is produced locally, according to local residents.
People are complaining that they are still being asked to pay the same price as when they were using electricity from China even though they are now buying it from local hydropower plant called Shweli, in Namkham township, according to a source from the border.
Shweli Hydropower plant, photo: SHAN
Previously, people in the areas were using Chinese electricity. Every house was ordered to change and use electricity from the local plant since April 2010.

But the electricity is reported irregular and the fee costs very high for per unit, said another villager in Muse.

One unit is between Yuan 1.4-1.6 (Kyat 300, $ 0.31). “But the electricity is not 24 hours as it was from China. Since we began to use Burmese electricity we are not getting it regularly. Some days we did not get any electricity.”

People in Muse and Namkham townships had been using electricity from China side since 1989.

On other hand, another problem was meter boxes because the machine was unable to read the measurement of units, said a source.

“The people don’t know how much the fees really cost. They therefore have to pay just what the authorities say.”

People in Burma are rarely to get regular electricity even though the country is the producer of electricity through dozens of its hydropower plants. The electricity is mostly being sold to its neighboring countries such as Thailand and China.

Shweli #1 is exporting most of its power to China. It is located near Mantat village, 17 miles southwest of Namkham, inaugurated in May 2006.