"Efforts by Burma?s military regime to improve the country?s unreliable electricity supply ahead of promised national elections next year face big hurdles. A new hydroelectric dam near the central city of Mandalay is being tested this month and in theory it could expand Burma?s power generating capacity by over 40 percent. Additionally, a 150-kilometer pipeline is to be built in the south to carry gas to Rangoon, seemingly to alleviate perpetual power shortages there. An inadequate and decrepit infrastructure, however, is likely to result in wastage of much of any extra electricity—if it isn?t sold to China anyway. Chinese developers are this month conducting tests on the 790-megawatt capacity Yeywa hydro dam nearing completion on the Myitnge River. The project, which has been under construction since 2004 and has reportedly cost more than US $600 million, should raise Burma?s electricity generating capacity by more than 40 percent. However, with so much Chinese involvement—including investment of about $200 million—some of the power might be pumped north into China?s equally hungry Yunnan province, observers believe. The Yeywa dam, 50 kilometers south of blackout-plagued Mandalay, is about 300 kilometers from the Chinese border. Burma has one of the world?s worst electricity generating capacities—a mere 1,700 megawatts for a population of around 50 million..."