Developer to build second hydro plant on Long River
Developer to build second hydro plant on Long River
Local small-scale energy developer Nam Long Power Co Ltd plans to build a second hydropower plant on the Long River in Long district, Luang Namtha province.
“Now we've completed the project study and are preparing to start construction,” company President Mr Bounleuth Luangpaseuth said last week during an interview at a seminar on renewable energy development in Laos.
The hydro plant will be called Nam Long 2 and will be about 4km from the Nam Long 1 plant now under construction.
“We will work on an access road to the project site and will also start to clear the area at the project site soon. Currently we are building a camp to house the workers,” Mr Bounleuth said.
The company is building the second hydro plant because it has made a considerable outlay on the first plant, mainly for construction equipment, heavy machinery, road access, and installing electricity transmission lines.
The company will use this equipment and machinery to build the second plant when the first one has been completed.
“The second project will require less expenditure than the first one; it will be about 20 percent cheaper,” Mr Bounleuth said. The company is spending over 109 billion kip (US$13.7 million) on the first hydro plant, which will be a run-of-river scheme and will have installed capacity of 5MW. The second plant will be of similar construction.
“However, we cannot say when the second plant will be finished because we're busy with the first one,” he said.
Construction of the Nam Long 1 plant is progressing well and on schedule, and is now over 68 percent complete. The developer is now preparing to install imported equipment and machinery to power the plant. The turbines and generators are from Germany and the other equipment is from China.
When the plant is operational, the electricity generated will be sold to the Electricite du Laos (EDL) power grid. It is forecast to generate about 37 million kWh annually. It will be another step towards ensuring that 85 percent of Luang Namtha's population has access to electricity by 2015, and may one day replace the need for imported electricity from China.
Nam Long Power Co Ltd is a joint investment between Luangpaseuth Construction Sole Co Ltd, which holds 80 percent, and EDL, which holds the remaining 20 percent.
The two plants are free of the environmental impacts associated with large-scale projects due to the run-of-river design, which does not require a large dam or storage reservoir. The dam or weir is only 6.5 metres in height.
The government is promoting the rapid development of small and medium d power plants for local supply to reduce the need for imported electricity.
vientiane times
