After decades of delay, Ulaanbaatar is moving forward with the construction of its long-planned Thermal Power Plant No. 5. In the final round of the tender process, Mitime International LLC, a company registered in the Kingdom of Cambodia, was selected as the project developer with a score of 75 points. A contract agreement will be concluded within one month and subsequently confirmed by the Ulaanbaatar City Council.

Mitime International will construct the plant with a projected capacity of 340 Gcal of heat and 300 MW of electricity, enough to supply heating for 40,000 households in the western districts of Ulaanbaatar. The project, to be built on a 20-hectare site located between existing TPP-2 and TPP-4, has an estimated cost of 658.6 million USD. Construction is expected to take 24 months, followed by a six-month testing phase, meaning the project will take a total of 30 months before handover to the state commission.

According to Director of Ulaanbaatar City Public-Private Partnership LLC Z.Batyrbek, the issue of building this thermal power plant in Ulaanbaatar has been discussed since 1985. After 41 years, the plant will be built through a public-private partnership. The source of economic expansion is electricity and heat.

Under the agreement, Mitime International has the right to build the plant with its own funds and transfer ownership to the state after completion. The company has previously developed the 30 MW Toson thermal power plant in Tosontsengel soum, Zavkhan Province, as well as a station in Selenge Province, demonstrating experience in Mongolia’s energy sector.

The new plant is expected to make use of existing infrastructure, relying on the railway lines that currently serve Ulaanbaatar’s older power plants for coal transport and operations. The site, currently occupied by ash ponds, will require clearance, with the ash planned for relocation to designated landfills.

A total of 26 citizens and enterprises are affected by the land designated for the project site, of which nine remain unresolved. Authorities have emphasized that resettlement and compensation processes are underway.

Demand for heat in Ulaanbaatar continues to grow rapidly, with around 500 enterprises currently unable to secure heat technical conditions due to shortages in supply. The completion of this new plant is expected to significantly reduce this bottleneck, providing a source of reliable electricity and heating to support the capital’s economic expansion.