What happened

Following Myanmar's February 2021 military coup, People's Defense Forces aligned with the shadow National Unity Government and allied ethnic armed organizations have carried out a sustained campaign of attacks on the country's electricity transmission network, targeting pylons, main power lines and power stations largely serving the military and its economic interests, though the resulting damage has also cut civilian electricity supply nationwide. Myanmar's junta-controlled electricity authority reported in a late-May 2024 statement, during a national heatwave, that resistance attacks had destroyed 89 transmission pylons, bombed 5 power stations and carried out 71 attacks on main power lines since the conflict began, contributing to national generation meeting only about 2,800 MW of a required 5,443 MW (roughly half of demand), alongside drought-reduced hydropower and lower natural-gas yields. By January 2025, reporting found the damage had grown further, with 14 transmission links to power plants destroyed, 171 transmission poles damaged and more than 160 line-damage points recorded across the grid, pushing national output to roughly 2,200 MW against a typical 4,000 MW; regional supply rates were reported at about 48% in Yangon, 17% in Mandalay and 35% in Naypyidaw and other areas, with residents in major cities experiencing rotating four-hour power blocks followed by eight-hour shutdowns. At least 30 people were reported killed during grid-repair efforts amid the ongoing conflict. The World Bank separately found that 77% of Myanmar's power plants are located within 10 kilometres of conflict-related fatalities, underscoring the grid's broad exposure to the civil war. This record represents the recurring, escalating pattern of transmission-infrastructure attacks and conflict-driven grid degradation across 2021-2025 as a chronic phenomenon rather than mapping each individual pylon or line attack.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.