Myainggalay Cement power station
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Myainggalay Cement power station is an operating power station of at least 30-megawatts (MW) in Hpa-an, Kayin, Myanmar. It is also known as Myaing Ka Lay Cement power station, Tan Lay Htaung Cement power station.
Location
Table 1: Project-level location details
| Plant name | Location | Coordinates (WGS 84) |
|---|---|---|
| Myainggalay Cement power station | Hpa-an, Kayin, Myanmar | 16.876601, 97.585428 (exact) |
The map below shows the exact location of the power station.
Unit-level coordinates (WGS 84):
- Unit 1: 16.876601, 97.585428
Project Details
Table 2: Unit-level details
| Unit name | Status | Fuel(s) | Capacity (MW) | Technology | Start year | Retired year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | operating | coal - unknown | 30 | unknown | 2018 | – |
Table 3: Unit-level ownership and operator details
| Unit name | Owner |
|---|---|
| Unit 1 | Myanmar Economic Corp Ltd [100.0%] |
Project-level captive use details
- Captive industry use (heat or power): cement & building
- Captive industry: Power
Background
The Myainggalay cement factories are owned by the Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), which is a major conglomerate and holding company operated by the Burmese military under the Defense Ministry.[1] For reference, the Myainggalay Cement power station is also referred to as the also known as the Myaing Ka Lay Cement power station or Tan Lay Htaung Cement power station.[2]
In mid-September 2016, the Ministry of Energy and a cement factory informed villagers about the intention to change the plant's power generation from gas to coal firing.[1]
The first cement factory was reportedly built in the 1980s and developed as a 900 ton factory. A 4,000 ton factory was then developed after 1990. Initially, the factories used fuel oil and natural gas, but they appear to have switched to coal-fired power in 2018.[3]
According to one report published by Karen Rivers Watch, the plant burns "at least 800 tonnes of coal per day".[4] The plant is of an unknown capacity, but it is listed as 30 MW.
Opposition
The power station (reportedly associated with cement factory No. 2[1]) switched from gas to coal around 2018 despite opposition from local people.
Activists included Saw Tha Phoe, who was charged for making statements that could incite offenses against the state or public tranquillity under Penal Code section 505b. His charge was opposed by more than 325 environmentally-focused civil society organizations.[5]
Villagers had been protesting the Myainggalay cement factory for years, claiming that uncovered piles of coal dust it stored on-site were contaminating groundwater, blackening the water in their wells. Local authorities, however, rejected these claims.[5] For example, in October 2019, the Hpa-an Township, Kayin State Locals, and state-based civil society groups called for a complete shutdown of the coal-fired cement plant. Residents noted that the plant was operating without an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), and that the company had not undertaken proper consultations or provided adequate information.[6]
In December 2020, activists were still calling for the plant's closure, and the government had provided four long-term boreholes and water purifiers for local residents to drink from.[7]
The conflicts at the site are described in more detail on EJAtlas.
Articles and Resources
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Myanmar: Run Myaing Galay cement plant opposed," Cemnet, October 14, 2016
- ↑ "Mandates of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar," Human Rights Commission, April 17, 2020
- ↑ "Environmental Deterioration In The Case Of Coalfired Power Plant," International Journal Of Innovations In Engineering Research And Technology, Issn: 2394-3696 Volume 7, Issue 5, May 2020
- ↑ "Dark Waters & Forbidden Prayers," Karen Rivers Watch, 2020
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Amnesty International demands Karen state withdraw charges against environmental activist," Myanmar-Now, March 14, 2020
- ↑ "ကျောက်မီးသွေး လောင်စာသုံး မြိုင်ကလေး ဘိလပ်မြေစက်ရုံ ပိတ်သိမ်းရေး ဒေသခံများ တောင်းဆို," Irrawaddy, October 23, 2019
- ↑ "မြိုင်ကလေး ဘိလပ်မြေစက်ရုံ ရပ်ဆိုင်းပေးရန် ဒေသခံများ တောင်းဆို," Burmese DVB, December 27, 2020
Additional data
To access additional data, including an interactive map of coal-fired power stations, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.
