Vietnam to invest in hydropower construction in Laos

(KPL) A feasibility study of Nam Theun 4 hydropower construction project will be operated in central province of Bolikhamsay, by a Vietnamese company after inking in the MoU last week.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed here between the Ree Power Plant Company of Vietnam and Ministry of Planning and Investment.
The company will conduct 18 month-study to determine the viability of the project.
The company will sign a further agreement with the government if the study shows the project to be economically viable.
If the project goes ahead, the plant will have an installation capacity of about 180MW.
Laos has the potential to generate a total of about 26,600MW of power from hydro sources, excluding the mainstream Mekong River.
Of this, about 18,000 MW is technically exploitable. About 12,500MW can be potentially generated by sources in the major Mekong sub-basins and the remainder in minor Mekong or non-Mekong basins.
Less than 2 percents of the country's hydropower potential has been developed over the past 30 years, according to the Energy Promotion and Development Department.