PHNOM PENH, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said Friday that the negotiations on hiring a Turkey's power ship to tackle the ongoing electricity shortage have reached an agreement.
"Due to electricity shortage this year, we need to bring a power ship, which is installed with about 200-megawatt power plant, to Phnom Penh," he said in a speech during a government-private sector forum here.
With the support from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the talks between the Electricite du Cambodge and a Turkish firm on the lease of a power ship reached an agreement on Thursday, he said.
The prime minister said the country will hire the power ship for at least three years.
A power ship is a special purpose-designed ship, on which a power plant is installed to serve as a power generation resource.
Hun Sen said last week that Turkey planned to sell the electricity to Cambodia at the price of 14 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour, about 3 cents higher than that purchased from local hydropower plants.
Cambodia is facing the electricity shortage of 400 megawatts during the ongoing dry season because, hydropower plants, which are a main electricity source, could not generate electricity in full swing due to the shortage of water, he said.
Hun Sen said power cuts will last until June.
The kingdom is also seeking to buy more electricity from Vietnam, Laos and Thailand to fill the current electricity shortage, he said.
According to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, electricity supply in Cambodia was 2,650 megawatts in 2018, in which 1,329 megawatts, or 50 percent of the total power supply, were produced by hydroelectric dams.
