Power demand is expected to continue to increase this year. Electricity company CEM says it estimates the total consumption will increase by around 8 percent.

Last year, power consumption was up by 5 percent over 2010, and has surged by 127 percent over the last 10 years.

To meet the increasing demand of power supply, CEM says it has strengthened infrastructure development.

“Therefore, CEM will continue to invest in large scale projects and the total investment budget reached around MOP900 million (US$112.5 million),” the company’s chief executive officer Franklin Willemyns said during the annual spring lunch yesterday.

Large scale projects CEM has been involved in include a 220kV backbone to connect two substations in Macau and Cotai, the second 220kV interconnection cable with the mainland, as well as an 11kV network in close ring design for the University of Macau’s Hengqin Campus scheduled to open this year.

In the last four years, CEM spent a total of MOP220 million replacing over 500 critical sections of cables.