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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Laos
Index
Mountainous terrain and heavy annual rainfall give Laos
considerable hydroelectric potential. The Mekong River and
its
tributaries in Laos have an estimated hydroelectric
potential of
between 18,000 and 22,000 megawatts, or roughly half that
of the
river as a whole. The remaining potential belongs to
Cambodia and
other riparian countries. Total installed capacity in 1991
was 212
megawatts, the majority of it hydroelectric, or only about
1
percent of the potential.
Production of hydroelectricity, the country's major
export
until 1987, expanded slowly throughout the 1980s, from 930
thousand
megawatt-hours in 1980 to about 1.1 million megawatt-hours
in 1989,
an increase of about 17 percent. The majority of
electricity
produced--approximately 75 to 80 percent, as of 1992--is
exported
to Thailand, which has an agreement to purchase all
surplus
electricity. The remainder is supplied to power networks
for
domestic consumption. Through 1986 the sale of electricity
to
Thailand was the country's most important source of
foreign
exchange. Despite increased production, in 1987
hydroelectricity
yielded its place as the principal export to wood
products, because
of the drought, which lowered water levels, and a
reduction in the
unit price of electricity to Thailand. By 1991 a new
agreement
between Laos and Thailand had raised the unit price of
electric
power.
The largest hydropower facility in Laos is the Nam Ngum
dam,
sited on the Nam Ngum River, north of Vientiane. The Nam
Ngum plant
began operation in 1971 with an installed generating
capacity of
thirty megawatts; by 1987 additional turbines had
increased
capacity to 150 megawatts. In the early 1970s, the Nam
Ngum
facility provided electricity to Vientiane; the supply was
gradually extended to surrounding villages on the
Vientiane plain.
As of the early 1990s, approximately 80 percent of the
power
produced at Nam Ngum was exported to Thailand; some was
diverted to
the south for town and village electrification.
A second hydroelectric dam was completed at Xeset near
Saravan
(Salavan) in southern Laos in 1991. The Xeset plant has an
installed capacity of twenty megawatts.
About twenty smaller hydropower facilities and diesel
plants
supply additional power. Since the mid-1980s, Thakhek and
Savannakhét had access to a regular power supply through a
repurchase agreement with Thailand whereby a cable under
the Mekong
diverts power from the Thai electrical grid; villages
along Route
9 east of Savannakhét have been receiving electricity
since the
late 1980s. Louangphrabang has seasonal access to power
from a
hydroelectric dam supplemented by diesel generators. A
power
transmission line from Nam Ngum to Louangphrabang is
scheduled for
completion in the mid-1990s and will bring electrification
to many
villages near Route 13 that previously relied on kerosene
lamps and
battery-operated florescent lights.
Hydroelectric capacity will further increase as a
result of
agreements signed either for construction of new
facilities or for
conducting feasibility studies for additional sites.
Thailand is
the primary investor in the hydroelectric sector;
Australia,
Denmark, Finland, Japan, Norway, and Sweden also have
companies
with interests in various projects.
As of 1992, other provincial centers relied primarily
on diesel
generators, which are run for three to four hours nightly
and serve
only a fraction of the surrounding population. Most
district
centers do not have electricity other than small private
generators
that light the houses of a few dozen subscribers for
several hours
each evening. Automobile batteries and voltages inverters
are used
as a means of supplementing the limited hours of power.
These
devices enable Laotians to watch television and listen to
stereo
cassette players, even in remote locations.
Despite assistance from the International Development
Association, the Asian Development Bank, the United
Nations Development Programme
(UNDP--see Glossary),
and other
donors to
increase rural electrification services, national
consumption of
electricity increased slowly. The average annual increase
between
1970 and 1980 was 14.5 percent--an overall increase of 287
percent-
-to 325 million kilowatt-hours. After 1980 the growth of
consumption slowed greatly, to an average annual rate of
just 1.5
percent, reaching 365 million kilowatt-hours in 1988. Per
capita
consumption was just 93.6 kilowatt-hours, one of the
lowest rates
in the region.
According to the World Bank, energy consumption grew at
an
average annual rate of 4.2 percent between 1965 and 1980,
slowing
to 1.8 percent in the 1980-90 period. Fuelwood constitutes
about 85
percent of total energy consumption. Per capita
consumption of
fuelwood is between one and three cubic meters annually,
accounting
for more that ten times the consumption of wood for
commercial
purposes. Total usage--including fuelwood and
charcoal--was 3.9
million cubic meters in the 1985-87 period, a 21 percent
increase
over the 1975-77 period
(see Forestry
, this ch.). In 1985
hydroelectric power accounted for approximately 5 percent
of annual
energy consumption. Most consumption was in Vientiane;
domestic use
accounted for about 89 percent in 1983 and industrial use,
only
about 10 percent. The transportation sector, especially
civil
aviation, which consumed imported petroleum products,
accounted for
the remaining 5 percent of energy consumption.
The cost of fuel imports--primarily from the Soviet
Union until
1991--has placed a heavy burden on the economy,
constituting nearly
19 percent of all imports in 1986. In 1989 approximately
124,000
tons of petroleum fuel were imported, an increase of
nearly 40
percent over the preceding year
(see
Transportation and Telecommunications
, this
ch.).
In 1987 an oil pipeline of 396 kilometers was laid from
Vientiane to the border with Vietnam, close to the port of
Vinh,
facilitating the import of oil from the Soviet Union. The
pipeline's capacity is 300,000 tons annually, considerably
in
excess of the annual national oil consumption rate of
approximately
100,000 tons.
Data as of July 1994
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