Nam Ngiep 2 to begin commercial operations this week
Nam Ngiep 2 to begin commercial operations this week
A major joint venture investment hydropower project between Laos and China, Nam Ngiep 2 in Xieng Khuang province, will officially meet its commercial operation date on Friday after almost four years of construction.
The project has an investment cost of about 2.81 trillion kip (US$345 million), with Electricite du Laos (EDL) holding 10 percent and Chinese company WCE holding the other 90 percent.
The new plant has an installed capacity of 180 megawatts (MW) and the generated electricity will contribute to the national power grid for local supply, according to the website of the Ministry of Energy and Mines.
Nam Ngiep 2 has three generators that have an installed capacity of 60MW per unit, according to a report from a project official last Friday.
Unit 3 began commissioning tests on August 30 with unit 1 starting testing on September 14. Unit 2 started last Thursday, September 24, the report noted.
The developers signed a project development agreement on Nam Ngiep 2 with the Lao government in August 2010 and a concession agreement with the government a year later, August 2011.
The power purchase agreement was signed between Nam Ngiep 2 and EDL in October, 2011 and construction work started in November of the same year.
The project also has added expenditure for resettlement, environment and social support including infrastructure construction and relocation and compensation worth about 51 billion kip (US$6.25 million), livelihood development over US$390,000, compensation for temporary impact above US$250,000, social support of around US$100,000 and environment monitoring (biomass clearance and water quality analysis) of more than US$660,000.
The Lao government has to date signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) or is undertaking research studies on more than 70 hydropower projects. Some of these are either operational or under construction.
Laos has also signed an MoU to provide 7,000MW of energy after 2015 to Thailand, and 3,000MW of electricity from now until 2020 to Vietnam.
The representatives of the energy sectors in Laos and Cambodia have signed a purchase agreement for the supply of about 5MW by the end of 2009. However, to date there is no MoU to officially certify the terms of the sale.
The government intends to use the profits from hydropower sales to fight poverty in the country.
In recent years, the energy sector has played a part in social development, notably in the fields of education, human resources, health care, and job creation.
Twenty-seven power plants are currently operational with installed capacity of about 3,304MW, including 11 plants that have an installed capacity of 405MW which are operated by EDL. The other 16 plants, which have a combined installed capacity of 2,899MW, are operated by independent power producers.
Laos is aiming for total installed capacity of about 12,000MW by 2025, the Ministry of Energy and Mines' report noted.
The abundant resources of the Mekong River and its tributaries give Laos the potential to produce more than 25,000MW of electricity.
