Businesses in Myanmar will face a daily five-hour power outage throughout most of this month, as students need electricity to study during the night. This highlights how energy shortages are causing difficult decisions and exacerbating the country’s severe economic struggles.
To assist students studying for exams held until mid-March, Yangon Electricity Supply Corp., a state-owned utility company, has announced that commercial electricity usage will be banned from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. until March 20. This means businesses in Myanmar will face five hours of power outages every night, highlighting the difficult choices that energy shortages are forcing and exacerbating the country’s already dire economic situation.
Since a military junta seized control in 2021 and deposed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, sanctions have left buyers unable to easily access dollars for fuel purchases, and Myanmar has struggled to keep the lights on. The global energy crisis last year darkened the picture further, as import prices rose, triggering shortages and blackouts in Myanmar and many other developing nations in Asia.
To help ease the energy shortage, Myanmar’s military-led government has bought Russian fuel oil shipments but it’s unclear how much has arrived so far.
Blackouts are not a new headache for Myanmar, but outages in Yangon and other cities worsened last year, lasting half the day. They’ve been more severe outside large cities though, and the decision to limit commercial use in Yangon is a rare move.
Myanmar’s energy sector has been weakened by the pullout of foreign firms after the coup. A subsidiary of Thai state-owned energy company PTT Pcl recently postponed a $2 billion generation project, Nikkei Asia reported, following the exit of multinationals including Chevron Corp. and Total Energies SA.
