France and the EU Invest €99 Million to Modernise Cambodia's Power Grid
France and the European Union have jointly launched two major projects to modernise Cambodia's power grid, signing three contracts at a ceremony presided over by Energy Minister Keo Rottanak, French Ambassador Olivier Richard, and EU Ambassador Igor Driesmans.
The combined €99.1 million investment goes straight at one of the key bottlenecks holding back renewable energy expansion in Cambodia: a grid that still lacks the monitoring, storage and transmission capacity needed to reliably absorb variable renewable sources at scale. The Grid Modernisation project, funded by a €25 million loan from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and a €4.1 million EU grant, will upgrade monitoring and control systems to boost the grid's capacity to absorb renewable generation. The Sustainable Power Grid Development project, backed by a €70 million AFD loan, will upgrade transmission lines and substations across several provinces and includes the deployment of battery storage capacity.
On the industrial side, UKKO, a subsidiary of French group Duval, will supply €300,000 worth of equipment to the Institute of Electrical Science (IES), while Canadian firm Opal-RT will install a real-time simulator for the Platform for Research and Training on Power Systems, to prepare the next generation of grid operators.
EuroCham welcomed the investment and the international cooperation behind it, calling it a crucial step in strengthening both the infrastructure and the human resources needed to meet Cambodia's renewable energy goals.
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