THE government has been working to repair electricity transmission towers in Kayin State that were destroyed on August 14 by explosives set by anti-government insurgents, an official from the Yangon City Electricity Supply Board (YESB) said last week.

At a press conference held at YESB headquarters on August 18, a senior official from the board said the attack had destroyed two towers used to transmit power to the national grid and had also damaged a third tower, resulting in blackouts in Yangon and other towns in lower Myanmar.

“The explosives destroyed towers 206 and 208, and nearly pulled down tower 205. So Yangon lost 90 megawatts due to the destruction of power lines that carry electricity to the city,” he said.

The official said some of the electricity shortfall has been overcome by increasing the supply of natural gas to gas turbines.

“We have been getting an additional 6.1 million cubic feet of gas a day from the Ministry of Energy, so we have been able to increase the electricity output from gas turbines to partially compensate for the power lost by the explosives,” he said.

He said it would take “at least one week” to repair the towers because they were located in a remote, mountainous region where heavy rain and mudslides can hinder work.

Meanwhile, the reduction in power supplies has forced YESB to supply power to township according to a rotating system. The townships have been divided into three groups, with two groups receiving 18 hours of electricity and one group getting 12 hours on any given day.