THE Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and Myanmar Ministry of Electric Power (2) held a meeting on August 29 in Nay Pyi Taw to discuss progress on a project to develop a nationwide electric power network in Myanmar.

A statement released last week by KOICA said the meeting was aimed at reviewing the progress of the project, the third phase of which is 50 percent complete, and discussing steps for completion of the project.

KOICA has been working with the ministry on the nationwide electric power network project since 2001. The first phase of the project in 2001-2002 involved analysis of Myanmar’s power system network, while a basic design for a 500-kilovolt transmission system was drafted from 2003 to 2005.

The statement said that following the success of the first two phases, the two parties agreed to launch the third phase, named the Power System Operation and Protection Scheme, in 2006.

Under the US$1.4 million third phase – scheduled to last from 2006 to 2008 – KOICA has commissioned the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) to implement research and consulting activities such as data surveys for operation and protection areas, establishment of a reactive power compensation plan and statistics management system, and recommenda-tions for power system blackout prevention methods.