Saravan provincial authorities will cancel four of nine planned small-scale hydropower plant projects because there has been no progress for almost 18 months after investors signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the government.
The four projects are Houay Rai, Houay Saloung, Houay Namsay 2 and Houay Namsay 3, for which local investors signed an MOU with Saravan provincial authorities last year.
“We sent three proposal letters to them and asked for the project report, but there has not been any answer or contact with them,” Saravan provincial Energy Section Head Mr Sangthong Inthapakdy said yesterday.
The plants would have generating capacities between 2 and 5 megawatts each if they are developed and “will represent an investment of about 24 billion kip (US$3 million) per megawatt (MW),” Mr Sangthong said.
Provincial authorities will offer the four projects to other investors if they are interested. “However, we will have to inspect the companies’ capacities, including funds and experience,” he said.
Two of the nine projects, Houay Kapeu 2 and Houay La-ai, which are also being built by local developers, are progressing well.
The investors submit project studies and report on the progress of work to the provincial authorities regularly, including rain surveys, reservoir levels and necessary construction activities at the project site such as building a powerhouse.
The two projects, which will have generating capacities of 3.5 to 5MW, are within the MOU period now, “However, the investors will sign Project Development Agreements (PDAs) with the appropriate provincial sectors soon,” he said.
The remaining three projects – Houay Kapeu1, Xeset Banbaeng and Houay Por – are also progressing well and developers have recently signed PDAs with the province. The plants will have installed capacity of 5MW each and are funded by local investors.
The National Consulting Group signed a PDA for the Houay Por hydropower plant last week and the group will start construction by the end of this year and complete the project in 2015, with an investment of about 134 billion kip (US$16.7 million).
The plant will sell power to Electricite du Laos (EDL) for distribution through the national power grid.
“According to our initial study, Saravan will have about 17 or 18 small-scale power plants,” Mr Sangthong said.
The province may have more power plants because “there are many streams or rivers in some areas that have not been studied,” he said.
Saravan has two main hydropower plants at present – the 45MW Xeset 1 and the 76MW Xeset 2 – that generate electricity for local supply and export to Thailand.
Currently, the province has 112 villages, or 58,512 households, almost 68 percent of which have electricity that is provided either by local suppliers or imported from Vietnam.
Government targets dictate that at least 80 percent of the population will have access to the national electricity grid by 2015, and 90 percent by 2020. As of last October, about 72 percent of households had access.
The government is promo-ting the rapid development of small and medium sized power plants, with generating capacities ranging from 2-100MW, for local supply to reduce the need for imported electricity.
At least two new power plants will be brought on line in Laos each year between now and 2020. In 2006 the country had only 10 power plants with a total capacity of 700MW but now has 14 plants with a total capacity of 2,540MW.
