Luang Prabang switches on northern power grid
Luang Prabang switches on northern power grid
A 230kV high voltage transmission line was officially opened on Sunday in Nambak district of Luang Prabang province after taking only 16 months on the construction.
The construction started in April last year and will take about 18 months to complete, however the construction company took only 16 months and completed it.
“The importance, the 230kV project is to prepare electricity supply for the Lao-China railway project construction and a present to celebrate the 40 year anniversary of the Lao PDR,” the Energy and Mines Minister, Dr Khammany Inthilath said at the opening ceremony.
The ceremony was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Mr Somsavat Lengsavad and officials from the National Assembly, China, Luang Prabang, the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Chinese Embassy to Laos and company representatives.
This project is owned and operated by Electricite du Laos (EDL); and construction was commenced by a Chinese company.
It has an expenditure of more than 2.47 trillion kip (US$302.13 million), according to a report from EDL yesterday.
The project investment cost is loaned from China Development Bank.
The 230kV project covers three provinces of Luang Prabang, Oudomxay and Phongsaly. The line has 273.04km, three new substations and one substation expansion.
They are substation expansion in Xiengngeun district of Luang Prabang; and the three new substations are in Nambak district of Luang Prabang, Namor district of Oudomxay province, Bountay district of Phongsaly province.
The project will help supplying the electricity to the provinces in the north, central and south and export to the neighbouring countries.
Khammany said that in 1975, Laos had only three substations with few kilometres length of transmission line or grid, now Laos has total power grid more than 50,000km with 53 substations.
In 1975, there were only 19,000 families or 3 percent of the total population that had electricity use in Laos; however these days about 89.6 percent of the total population can access the power grid.
