Vientiane Times, May 15, 2014

A local construction company, MP Construction Co Ltd, will next week begin conducting a feasibility study on the proposed Houay Yeung 7 hydropower project in Xekong province.

The company signed a memorandum of understanding on the project with the Xekong provincial Planning and Investment Department in the province on Monday.

The agreement authorises the investor to conduct studies including assessments of the potential social and environmental impacts of the proposed plant, as well as other issues. The memorandum will last for nine months and the study will have to be completed by that time.

The department’s Director, Mr Nouphone Khemmalay, said the Houay Yeung 7 is expected to have an installed capacity of about 15 megawatts (MW) initially.

The project will be located on the Houay Yeung stream, which has a length of 40 kilometres and runs through Dakcheung district. Once the project is developed, the generated energy will be able to link to the national power grid.

Construction may start immediately if the study yields good results and the company will be given a concession by the government to carry out the project.

Mr Nouphone said the stream’s length would allow the company to build eight to nine hydropower plants.

Xekong province is keen to develop its natural resources to spur its economic development. Greater use of these resources would also help to eradicate poverty in line with the government’s goals.

So far there are about 14 power projects that have been signed off on and are ready to undertake studies. There still are some foreign and local companies interested in energy development in the province.

Currently there are some hydropower plants already under construction in the province, including the Houay Lamphan-yai, which will have an installed capacity of 88MW and commence generat ion in 2015.

The Xekaman 3 hydropower plant in the province has yet to run according to schedule. It has an installed capacity of 250MW.

So far Laos has 24 operational power plants with a capacity greater than 1MW, which combined have a total installed capacity of 3,250.3MW. Together, these are generating more than 16,100GWh annually for local and export markets.

The 24 plants include 14 under the management of independent power producers, which have a combined installed capacity of about 2,859.6MW, and another 10 plants under the management of EDL, which have a combined installed capacity of more than 390MW.