Nam Bak 1 power plant delayed
Nam Bak 1 power plant delayed
Construction of the Nam Bak 1 hy dropower project in Xaysomboun province by a major foreign developer has been delayed until next year or possibly 2017.
A provincial energy department official said yesterday the project will be delayed because the Thai investor, a major energy company, has not completed the necessary studies after signing a project development agreement (PDA) with the Lao government a few years ago.
The developer signed the PDA with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, on behalf of the Lao government, in August 2013.
The company expected that the studies would be finished within one year and the developer expected that project construction would begin by the end of the following year, 2014.
The agreement allowed the company to undertake more detailed studies on the project, including its engineering and design, concession agreements, and financing.
The provincial energy department official said that once construction begins, the project will take about two and a half years to complete.
The construction cost is estimated at about 992 billion kip (US$124 million).
However, the investor has to complete all of the studies to determine the level of difficulty of the project and therefore what the likely cost will be.
When complete, it is envisaged that the dam will have an installed capacity of 160 megawatts (MW), which could generate about 740GWh of electricity per year. The investor plans to sell all the energy generated to Electricite du Laos (EDL).
The company will not know for how long it can own and operate the project until after a concession agreement has been finalised with the Lao government.
There are also plans to build two more hydropower plants in Xaysomboun'sHom district, to generate electricity for domestic supply and export.
The province's Planning and Investment Department and the Electrical Construction and Installation State Enterprise recently signed an agreement to conduct feasibility studies on the construction of the Nam Mang 2 and Nam Pa dams.
These studies will assess the construction of two 15MW hydropower plants on the Nam Mang and Nam Pa rivers in Hom district.
The surveys are expected to begin after the rainy season and will take about 18 months to complete.
Xaysomboun has considerable potential for both small and medium hydro plants and several companies have signed memorandums of understanding for the construction of five dams in the province.
Those include projects of 15MW or more on the Nam Mang (x2), Nam Cha, Nam Karp and Nam Pa rivers. Two have already been approved by the government.
There are at least 20 potential projects awaiting studies by interested companies.
The government is promoting the rapid development of power plants for local supply in a bid to cut electricity imports.
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.
