Vientiane's street lighting

Today let's come back to my life's story. I told about the story of my work in Luang Prabang in 1993 to 1997 in the previous articles. Now I will tell you about my work in Vientiane. In 1997 Laos capital was called Vientiane prefecture. The street lighting in the capital was not improved since 1975. In the capital street light could be seen in a few main roads. The roads were also not in good condition.

That year there was a big plan for road improvement as well as street lighting. My company was hired for street lighting design for six roads. At that time I worked as an AutoCAD draftsman. I began to get acquainted to new terms like: street lighting lamp, street lighting fixture, hand holes, ... I had opportunity to work with French specialists who told me how they design street lighting in France.

Now the improvements of many roads in that project was completed together with new street lighting with yellow light replacing the old street lighting lamp with white color light.

EDL offers help with problem bills

Electricity users are welcome to check their bills at the office of the Electricite du Laos (EDL) if they have any queries, an official from the enterprise said on Monday.
EDL staff are there to help consumers solve problems if they feel anything on their monthly electricity bill is not clear, Mr Somphone said.
“We have full information on all electricity bill payments from 2003 to 2007,” he said.
Many people come to ask staff at EDL about the rates charged for the electricity they consume in a particular month, especially if the amount of power they consume seems to be the same as normal.
Mr Duangphachanh, a resident of Dongsavad village in Sisattanak district, Vientiane , is one such person.
He said he regularly paid about 140,000 kip per month from January to July this year, but last month received a bill for 900,000 kip.
“I was shocked when I received the bill,” he said.
He said he did not understand why his bill was so high, as he had not bought any extra electrical appliances for use in his house.
He called the electricity office to check his metre, and the staff who came said the device was working fine. They advised him to check with the EDL office.
When he did so, he was told he had not paid his bill for the past two months. He looked into the matter further and received a different answer.
“I was told that the bill for August should not be 900,000 kip, but 500,000 kip,” he said.
However, he had already paid the 900,000 kip as stated. “I'm still investigating the matter with EDL,” he said.
He said it was possible that charges could rise from 140,000 to 900,000 kip if electrical appliances or wiring was old and malfunctioning.

By Khonesavanh Latsaphao (Latest Update September 04, 2007)
http://www.vientianetimes.org.la/FreeContent/FreeContent_EDL.htm

Energy production to drop

EDL hopes to increase the energy supply in affected areas by other means

Electricite du Laos (EDL) reported last week that electricity generation would decrease during the remainder of this year, compared to the planned output for this fiscal year.
Mr Khamphone Saignasane.


The company had planned to produce more than 1.5 billion GWh this year, but the real generation may only reach about 1.48 billion GWh, which is about 98.7 percent of the plan.

“A reduction is likely because there is not enough water to contribute to the power generation required for the many hydropower plants,” said the General Manager of EDL, Mr Khamphone Saignasane, at the first semester meeting of the company in Vientiane on Friday.

The plants include the country's main dams that have large reservoirs, such as Nam Ngum 1 and Nam Leuk in Vientiane province.

“There are about eight plants for which electricity generation is predicted to go down,” said the EDL Planning and Procurement Office Manager, Mr Daopheng Simmavongsouthivong, by telephone yesterday.

Over the next six months, when power generation is reduced, the purchase of electricity from neighbouring countries and local plants is expected to rise correspondingly.

The company may spend about 191 billion kip (over US$20 million) to buy about 450 million GWh from other countries.

“The spending will be over that planned by about 19 percent,” Mr Khamphone said.

The countries that typically sell the energy to Laos include Thailand , Vietnam and China .

It will also buy roughly 13 million GWh from local private power producers at a cost of about 5.7 billion kip (US$602,000), which will also represent an increase in the planned budget.

The plants selling the energy to EDL include the Theun Hinboun plant in Khamkeuth district, Borikhamxay province and the Houay Ho facility in Attapeu and Champassak province.

The company will not only increase the buying of energy, but also plans to increase the supply of electricity for local use and for export over the next six months.

It hopes to export electricity at a cost of over 143 billion kip (about US$15 million), representing an 18 percent increase in the predicted budget.

“We hope the figure will increase as the rains intensify to provide the water for the plants to generate the energy required for the next six months,” Mr Khamphone said.

EDL also plans to increase local sales, which are expected to generate about 665 billion kip – a figure that is also a little higher than normal, by about 0.5 percent.

Laos plans for at least 70 percent of the population to have access to electricity in 2010, and 90 percent in 2020.

Laos currently has 11 major and 40 smaller hydro power plants generating energy for both domestic and export markets. They have a combined installation capacity of more than 670MW and generate about 3.5 billion kWh per year, of which about 2.2 billion kWh is exported to Thailand .

By 2020, there will be 29 major hydroelectric power development schemes in place, with a total capacity of 8,657MW.

By Phonsavanh Vongsay
(Latest Update August 21, 2007)
http://www.vientianetimes.org.la/Previous_195/Business/Business_energy.htm

Electricite de France’s delegation calls on PM Bouasone

Electricite de France’s delegation calls on PM Bouasone
(KPL) Deputy President of Electricite de France, Mr Luc Jacquet and his delegation on 9 August paid a courtesy visit to Prime Minister Mr Bouasone Boupphavanh.
During the talk held at Prime Minister’s Office, Mr Jacquet expressed thanks to PM Bouasone for his warm welcome offered to him and his delegation and he also informed the implementation of Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project in the first six months of 2007 to Prime Minister.
PM Bouasone highly valued the visit of the guest and his delegation which would contribute to the enhancement of the relations and cooperation between Laos and Electricite de France.
PM also expressed thanks to Mr Jacquet for his active contribution to the implementation of Nam Theun 2 hydropower project and hoped the project would achieve its plan.

56% of households expected to have access to electricity by 2008

(KPL) By the 2007-2008 period, the Government of the Lao PDR will strive to expand the yield of electricity and mining by 11.08% over the 2006-2007 period’s, while boosting the exportation to US$ 1.01 billion, a rise over the previous year by one fold..For the hydropower production, efforts will be made to turn out 3,720.4 million KWh, an increase of 1.01 million KWh, in which 1,355.18 million KWh will be for domestic consumption valued at US$ 66.45 million and 2,280.37 million KWh for export bringing in US$ 86.09 million. The government will also concentrate on the electrification to cover 56% of household nationwide.
The Government will also continue to support the construction of hydro power projects, especially the Nam Theune II Hydro power project , Sexet II, Nam Ngum II and Sekhamane II and other major projects.
The government will also continue the negotiation on the selling price of the electricity produced the hydro power projects of Nam Ngieb I, Sepien, Se Namnoi Theun-Hinboun, and continue to construct the high voltage electric grid..
In the mining sector, the Government will strive to boost the production growth by 13.31%, over the previous year to account for 85% of the whole sector’s gross value