Power exports surpass expectations, but local consumption drops

Power exports surpass expectations, but local consumption drops

Electricite du Laos (EDL)says this year's energy supply for local consumption will be less than originally planned while the exports will be much larger than initial expectations indicated.

“We expect to export 307.93 million kWh of electricity, returning revenue of US$12.40 million,” the EDL Managing Director Mr SisavathThiravong reported at a meeting in Vientiane recently. “This is a 115.19 percent increase from the initial target,” Mr Sisavath said.

EDL trusts the annual power exports will be higher than expected because of enlarged commercial operations in the first six months of this year, he explained.

It reported at the meeting that it exported 80.09 million kWh at a cost of US$3.28 million in the first six months of this year. “This was 202.85 percent higher than the projections we made,” Mr Sisavath said.

“The electricity export target will be 227.83 million kWh, which will be worth around US$9.14 million in the last six months of the year.”

However the yearly energy supply for local consumption will also decrease in relation to initial expectations.

“The local supply will be 2,771.67 million kWh this year at a cost of 1,727.93 billion kip. “This represents a 99.97 percent decrease from the initial target,” MrSisavath said.

EDL anticipates this year's energy supply for local consumption has not met the original plan because “some power producers, mainly in the northern provinces, cannot generate the energy to meet their targets in the first six months,” Mr Sisavath observed.

The electricity supply for local consumption was 1,350 million kWh for the first six months, at a cost of 792.20 billion kip. “This amounts to 99.08 percent of the initial plan,” Mr Sisavath said.

“So we predict the local supply will be 1,421.66 million kWh, which will be worth 935.72 billion kip in the last six months of the year.”

Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines Mr Khammany Inthirath said recently that around 802,400 families living in 5,934 villages nationwide have access to electricity, which represents 76.9 percent of the total households in the country.

By 2015 Laos will attempt to build enough hydropower plants to give the country an installed capacity of 3,856 megawatts, and produce around 19,184 million kWh of electricity per year.

Domestically, the govern-ment wants to increase the number of households with access to electricity to about 85 percent and hopes to increase this number to more than 90 percent by 2020.

The report for the first six months noted that currently there are 15 hydropower plants in operation, which have a total installed capacity of 2,519.70MW.

vientiane times