Vientiane Times, Jul 29, 2015

The country’s considerable potential for renewable energy will be developed to provide sustainable benefits for the Lao people, a senior energy ministry police and planning official has said.

Dr Daovong Phonekeo, director general of policy and planning in the Ministry of Energy and Mines, told a workshop on hydropower development that the Lao government’s vision for 2030 includes ???developing all potential renewable resources based on competitiveness, sustainability and efficiency.???

???The government’s power policy and development programme calls for promoting power interconnections with the region, harmonising and strengthening the national power grid and ensuring a reliable supply of electricity to power industrialisation and modernisation,??? he said.

???Laos’ vast hydropower potential provides the opportunity to become a battery to stimulate the regional power trade, and so optimise the energy mix of the Greater Mekong sub-region (GMS) countries,??? Dr Daovong said. ???However, this opportunity requires optimal development of the country’s hydropower resources in a sustainable way by sharing the multifaceted benefits delivered.???

Addressing an audience that included private developers, engineers and scientists along with representatives of regional and international organisations, Dr Daovong hailed the energy sector’s remarkable 40 year history of growth and the move away from imported fuels.

???In 1975, there were only three hydropower plants with 32 MW of capacity, enough to electrify only the five main cities. It’s estimated that less than 10 percent of families had access to electricity then.

Today there are 27 hydropower projects with about 3,300 MW of capacity and about 88 percent of all households have access to electricity.

Nearly 70 more projects are planned or underway, including the Xayaboury and Don Sahong hydropower projects. We estimate that the total hydropower potential in Laos is about 26,000 MW,??? he said.

The government formulated its first Power Sector Policy in 1990, aimed at expanding access to electricity with grid extension and off-grid rural electrification, while earning foreign exchange through electricity exports.

At first power-sector projects were supported by international institutions.

In 2005, the government’s strategic energy development programme laid out key targets that led to today’s bold new approaches that include privately financed projects for the export of electricity and an emphasis on cross-border power trade.

The success of the power sector can provide a source of foreign exchange to fund economic and social development, and alleviate poverty, he said.

By Times Reporters
(Latest Update??July 28,??2015)