Work on Nam Hinboun hydro power project delayed
Work on Nam Hinboun hydro power project delayed
Construction on the Nam Hinboun hydropower project downstream from Thuen Hinboun in Khammuan province may not be completed on schedule which is set for June 30 next year.
“The project's completion may be delayed by about six months to the end of 2016,” the Project Manager, Mr Khambonh Chanthanasinh, said yesterday.
“It will not be on schedule because we have been faced with too much water at the construction site which has been our main difficulty and has delayed the project,” Mr Khambonh said.
He added that construction is about 57 percent complete now after work began in July 2013.
The project includes some land clearance which has already taken place across the site and building of access roads, a 115kV transmission line, workers' camps and dormitories.
He said what they are currently working on is the construction of a spillway and foundations of the powerhouse.
Construction of 377 houses for resettled communities from inside the dam's impact area is also under preparation and will start in July in four new villages in Phonkham district.
The resettlement includes the construction of schools, markets, dispensaries, bore wells and other facilities.
“So far we have completed the compensation of agricultural area for the people and completed the construction of the schools and dispensaries,” he said.
The project will require a total investment of about 714 billion kip (US$89.97 million), and will be situated in Hinboun and Khounkham districts. It is an Electricite du Laos (EDL) investment.
It will have an installed capacity of 30MW and will generate about 155 million kWh annually.
The project is a run-of-river concrete dam, about 7m in height that will generate electricity for local consumption.
According to the government's plan, the project's main purpose is to store water during the wet season to irrigate agricultural land in the province during the dry season.
More than 200,000 hectares of agricultural land will have water in the dry season once the project is finished.
The Nam Hinboun hydropower project will serve the rapidly expanding electricity demand of the local population. It is a local small-scale energy project and the government wants its electricity to be supplied to nearby communities and to industry.
The government is promoting the rapid development of small and medium d power plants for local supply to reduce the need to import electricity. Such plants have installed capacities ranging from 2-100MW.
T he small and medium-d power plants are free of some of the environmental impacts associated with large-scale construction as some of them are run-of-river design, which does not require a large dam or storage reservoir.
Instead, run-of-river projects generate electricity by diverting only part of the river. This produces relatively little change in the channel and flow, as well as minimising the impact on fish migration, water quality and wildlife habitats.
Twenty-seven power plants are currently operational in Laos with a combined installed capacity of 3,304MW.
Laos is aiming for a total installed capacity of about 12,000MW by 2025, a report from the Ministry of Energy and Mines states.
The abundant resources of the Mekong River and its tributaries give Laos the potential to produce more than 25,000MW of electricity.
