Fly ash sales to boost revenues at Hongsa power plant
Fly ash sales to boost revenues at Hongsa power plant
Lao Holding State Enterprises (LHSE) is now preparing to start its fly ash business operations after it received approval from the Ministry of Energy and Mines three weeks ago.
“The preparations will include the construction of an office, laboratory and dormitory for the staff at the project site in Hongsa district, Xayaboury province,” LHSE General Manager, Dr Somboune Manolom, said last Thursday.
“The preparations will also include the construction of a warehouse to store the ash,” another LHSE official said yesterday.
Speaking at the enterprise's annual meeting in Vientiane to review operations over the past year, Dr Somboune said the feasibility study into the fly ash business in Laos for the energy investor LHSE by a New Zealand consultancy company AECOM had been completed.
Dr Somboune said the New Zealand company confirmed that the fly ash business would operate profitably and efficiently were LHSE to invest in it. “The market will be mainly in Laos initially,” the company official said.
Fly ash, a by-product of fuel combustion in electricity generation, can be mixed with concrete to reduce the cement requirement by 15 to 20 percent.
Under an agreement signed with LHSE earlier last year, AECOM had investigated the market potential and quality of fly ash available in Laos.
AECOM had looked at some related agreements on fly ash, the market potential for the product in Laos and in foreign countries, and how fly ash could be transported and stored.
The company also studied cement and concrete factories in Vientiane and reported on fly ash businesses operating in Thailand and how similar operations could sell to the construction industry in Laos.
LHSE, through the Lao government, will have access to a free supply of fly ash for a period of 25 years once the Hongsa Mine-Mouth Power Project in Xayaboury starts commercial operations, expected to be in 2015.
In Laos, the product would be used in the construction of dams, roads and buildings, as well as the production of bricks and roof tiles.
At the company's annual meeting last year to review its 2012 operations, LHSE General Manager, Dr Somboune Manolom, said that based on the initial study, LHSE could earn about 64 billion kip (US$8 million) annually from fly ash sales. That would yield about 1.6 trillion kip (US$200 million) over the 25 year period.
Thailand's Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Public Company reported in October 2010 that the Hongsa power plant will produce about 2 million tonnes annually of residual ash once electricity generation commences. It is expected to burn about 14 million tonnes of lignite per year to generate electricity, with the residual ash a by-product of the power generation process.
Last Thursday LHSE reported that construction of the Hongsa project was 77.6 percent complete as at the end of last year after work started in 2010.
The Hongsa project is the largest power plant to be built in Laos and will have an installed capacity of 1,878MW at a total cost of more than 28.93 trillion kip (US$3.71 billion).
Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Public Company owns a 40 percent stake in the project, while Thailand's Banpu Power Ltd owns 40 percent and LHSE holds the remaining 20 percent.
vientiane times
