New power plants to shore up Vientiane electricity supply
New power plants to shore up Vientiane electricity supply
Residents and large investment projects in Vientiane are set to have sufficient electricity supply within the next few years due to the construction of several power plants which are now reaching completion.
Director of Vientiane Power Distribution Department's Electricite du Laos (EDL) Mr Soukhonh Chanthone said, “We are working very hard to ensure that there will not be any power or electricity failures which affect investors or members of the public.”
There are currently many development projects operating or under construction in Vientiane, with more being built by local and foreign investors as business conditions improve.
Mr Soukhonh said, “On average, each project is estimated to be initially using around 50 to 60 megawatts (MW).”
These projects include the Mega Mall being overseen by Singaporean businesspeople in Sikhottabong district, as well as the That Luang Marsh Specific Economic Zone (SEZ) being overseen by Chinese investors.
The That Luang Marsh SEZ covers an area of 365 hectares in Xaysettha and Sisattanak districts, with completion slated for October 2016.
The ITECC Market is also currently under construction and will be the largest market in Laos. It is located in Xaysettha district on an area of 106,000 square metres. The project is set to be complete by November this year.
Another high-profile shopping centre is also scheduled to open later this year, with a marketing strategy targeting luxury brand shoppers. The four-storey shopping centre is a part of the Vientiane Centre project and is being developed on 5.3 hectares of land at the Nongchan Marsh in Sisattanak district.
The shopping centre will also include another nine-storey office building for rent, which is being developed as part of the first phase of the project. The soft opening of the building is planned for July, while the official opening is slated for October.
Another project is the Asean shopping centre in Vientiane being undertaken by San Jiang Market investors from China, who are spending millions of US dollars to build the centre in preparation for integration with the Asean Economic Community in 2015. The project is set to be completed and open to the public by 2016.
Mr Soukhonh said the consumption of the electricity in Vientiane is now at an average of about 250MW per day, with imported electricity from Thailand standing at around 150 to 190MW each day.
“We have seen electricity consumption increase by 10 to 15 percent per year in Vientiane and it could even go up to 20 percent,” he said.
The increase in consumption has been attributed to the expansion of the city, new residential and commercial developments, population growth and the rising use of electronic equipment.
Mr Soukhonh said many hydropower plants that were under construction were almost complete and all the generated energy would be linked and supplied to the national power grid.
On March 11, Xenamnoy 1 began full-scale commercial electricity generation with others including Xekaman 3, Nam Sana and Nam Ngiep 3A will soon come online. All up, the four plants will have a combined installed capacity of about 322.8MW.
Eight additional hydropower plants will begin commercial operations next year, with a combined installed capacity of around 2,976MW.
Another five power plants are als o scheduled to commence generation in 2016 and they will have an installed capacity of about 514MW.
So far, Laos has 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 po wer 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.
vientiane times
