Power utility CEM’s total investment for 2025 reached 967 million patacas, of which 586 million patacas (60.6 percent of the total) was invested in improving and upgrading its electricity transmission and distribution network, according to a statement published in the Official Gazette (BO) yesterday.
The statement said that the Tai On Substation project, which includes the power utility’s new dispatch centre in the Zone A new urban area, is progressing as planned, with its 110kV and 11kV networks already in operation.
Zone A, a new land reclamation area primarily being developed for public housing projects, is located between the peninsula’s north-eastern coast and the man-made island where the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) Macau checkpoint is located.
The statement also said that the construction of the Barra Substation, located in the area near A-Ma Temple and the Barra entrance to the Macau-Taipa Sai Van Bridge, is underway as scheduled, while the construction of a new substation located near the power utility’s power plant is also underway.
At the peninsula side, Sai Van Bridge has two entrances, one at Barra and the other near Macau Tower.
CEM’s power plant is located at Ka Ho on Coloane island. Most of Macau’s electricity consumption is currently imported from the Chinese mainland.
Electricity imported into Macau from the Chinese mainland is supplied and transmitted by China Southern Power Grid (CSG).
CEM 66kV substations across the city will gradually be upgraded to 110kV ones. The first upgrade project, the statement said, has been launched at the Lisboa Substation in Zape, which has been in operation for 42 years.
The statement also underlined that the reliability of CEM’s energy supply has remained at a world-class level of 99.9999 percent for six consecutive years.
In 2025, the statement said, Macau’s overall electricity demand remained virtually unchanged from 2024, with last year’s total consumption amounting to 6,262.6 GWh, a slight year-on-year increase of 0.4 percent.
87.2 pct of electricity consumption from Chinese mainland
The statement said that electricity supply to Macau continued to be predominantly from China Southern Power Grid (CSG) in 2025, which accounted for 87.2 percent of Macau’s total electricity consumption last year, corresponding to 5,463.7 GWh, a year-on-year decrease of 0.7 percent.
In 2025, according to the statement, local power generation contributed 9.3 percent of the total consumption, reaching 582.9 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 8.5 percent, while electricity purchased from the city’s waste incineration plant located in Taipa’s Pac On district, which also generates electricity during its waste treatment process, accounted for 3.4 percent of Macau’s total electricity consumption, corresponding to 213.1 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 10.1 percent.
The statement also said that “with full smart meter coverage in Macau, a new energy management model has been implemented. Robot dogs have been deployed in substations, making them a fundamental technical component of CEM’s intelligent inspection systems. The intelligent voice chatbot system has been officially launched, making CEM the first company in Macau to integrate cutting-edge AI technology with large language models into its customer services”.
The statement also said that the total number of charging piles for e-cars and those for e-motorcycles across the city has now exceeded 3,000.
Furthermore, the statement said, CEM has launched a solar electricity project to install a floating photovoltaic (FPV) system on the reservoir at its power plant in Coloane, and has installed photovoltaic systems on the roof of the new Tai On Substation in Zone A and on the roof of the CEM headquarters located on Estrada de D. Maria II in the peninsula.
CEM has also established a team of photovoltaic energy experts with strong design skills to provide feasibility analysis and specialised technical advice to clients intending to install photovoltaic systems on their premises, the statement said.
Macau’s mobile phone penetration rate reaches 217 pct
Meanwhile, CTM spent 208 million patacas on its investment projects in 2025, representing a reduction of 21 million patacas from 229 million in 2024, according to a statement published by the telecom operator in the gazette yesterday.
CTM’s major investment projects in 2025, the statement said, included the installation of fibre optic broadband internet for its clients, the expansion of its 5.5G mobile network, and the development of its information technology (IT) system.
Neither the CEM nor the CTM statement gazetted yesterday mentioned other key financial performance data such as revenues and profits.
At the end of 2025, the statement said, Macau’s mobile phone penetration rate reached 217 percent, an increase from 210 percent at the end of 2024. CTM’s mobile customer base grew by six percent to 817,165 at the end of 2025 from 771,678 at the end of 2024, while the number of mobile broadband subscribers increased 10 percent to 598,862 from 546,025 during the period.
According to the statement, CTM’s total internet customer base increased to 210,203 at the end of 2025 from 208,049 at the end of 2024, with the telecom operator also achieving 100 percent fibre optic coverage for its users. The statement said that the company’s residential customers with copper cable-based internet access have all upgraded their service to fibre optic cable-based internet plans. By the end of 2025, 210,085 customers had already adopted fibre optic broadband internet, the statement said.
This file photo taken in 2024 shows the CEM headquarters (right) in northern peninsula.
This file photo taken in 2024 shows the CTM headquarters in central Taipa. – Photos: Tony Wong
