Vientiane province to build new small power plant
Vientiane province to build new small power plant
A local energy developer hopes to start construction next year of a small scale hydropower plant project, Keng Luang, in Kasy district of Vientiane province, with completion expected in 2017.
The developer has now finished the feasibility studies for the project started in November 2 012.
“The project will require an investment of about 256 billion kip (US$32 million). It will have three generators with an installed capacity of around 5 megawatts (MW) each,” the provincial Business and Energy Division representative, Mr Houngthong Khamlasy, said on Thursday.
“The plant will able to generate about 68GWh of energy per year which will be sold to Electricite du Laos (EDL) for local supply,” he said.
The project will have no need for resettlement because it is located away from any residential communities. It will, however, impact some of their farms, about 10 hectares in total. “Currently the developer is working on how to solve the issue,” he said.
The developer will soon sign a concession agreement with the provincial administration and a power purchase agreement with EDL before construction starts.
So far there have been 14 potential hydropower projects in the province that have seen the signing of memorandums of understanding with the provincial administration.
These include the projects on Nam Samoy and Nam Sana in Kasy district.
Nam Samoy is now at the stage of access road construction and installation of the transmission line to the project site.
Nam Sana power plant is now built with an installed capacity of 14MW from the investment of 240 billion kip (US$30 million) by EDL and a Thai energy developer. The plant is now undergoing electricity generation testing and is expected to start commercial operations within the next few months.
Vientiane province now has hydropower plants with a total installed capacity of about 302MW.
Laos has now got 24 operational power plants starting from one megawatt with a total installed capacity of 3,250.3MW.
Combined, these are generating more than 16,100GWh annually for local and export markets.
The 24 plants include 14 under the management of independent power producers that have a combined installed capacity of about 2,859.6MW and 10 plants under the management of EDL, which have a combined installed capacity of more than 390MW.
The Lao government is actively promoting renewable energy development, including the nation's hydropower resources to increase electricity production and supply power for both domestic use and export to neighbouring countries.
Minister of Energy and Mines Mr Soulivong Daravong highlighted at the 29th Asean Ministers on Energy Meeting held in Brunei in 2011 that Laos can help Asean countries to reduce their use of fossil fuels, which are the main source of greenhouse gas emissions and importantly can help Asean to stabilise its power supply.
vientiane times
