Laos, which is committed to becoming the "battery of ASEAN", has achieved 100% power supply in the provincial capital city, 94% of the country's villages and 95% of the households have electricity, and exports electricity to China, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and other neighboring countries, bringing important foreign exchange earnings for Laos.

Although in recent years, the emergence of problems such as electricity price inversion, high debt of EDL (Lao National Power Company), and arrears of IPP electricity bills have led some foreign power producers to take a cautious wait-and-see attitude toward the Lao power market, but since 2024, the China-Laos power market seems to be rekindled.

In the near future, the central power enterprises frequently:

Three Gorges Asia and Africa Company signed a memorandum of 1GW photovoltaic cooperation, CGN 1GW photovoltaic base is about to start, Power Construction assisted the Lao Ministry of Energy and Mining to prepare and issue the "Laos National New Energy Master Plan", Southern Power Grid invited the Lao energy and mining minister to visit Yunnan, Energy Construction International Group said that it would speed up the landing of Laos "Grand Comprehensive new" project, power construction senior executives visited Lao politicians, Datang Haitou and Nanwei Yunnan Institute plan to jointly develop power projects in Lancang-Mekong region.

"Three Gorges Afro-Asia Company enters Lao Market"

Recently, Three Gorges Asia and Africa Company signed a memorandum of understanding on 1GW photovoltaic project cooperation. The project is located in Oudomseh Province in northern Laos and is one of the planned power points for the China-Laos 500KV power interconnection. According to the current plan, it is planned to select suitable plots within about 4,000 hectares of land and develop photovoltaic projects with a total capacity of about 1,000 MW in stages, and all the electricity generated will be sent back to China.

"CGN 1GW PV project Starts Soon"

In September 2023, CGN was approved to develop a clean energy base project for connectivity in northern Laos. The project is planned once and implemented in stages, and is planned to span the three provinces of Oudong Msai, Fengsari and Luang Namtha in northern Laos to build a clean energy base with integrated wind and water storage.

At present, the first phase of 1GW photovoltaic project has completed the preliminary work such as feasibility study, EIA report approval and power return approval, and is expected to start construction in June this year with the China-old 500kV transmission line of the Southern Power Grid. After completion, it is connected to the 500kV network line in the "point-to-network" way, and after meeting the local consumption, all the remaining power is returned to the transmission network of Yunnan Province.

The project is located in Oudomxay Province, Laos, about 30 kilometers away from Mohan Town, China, and the EPC project is undertaken by Yunnan Institute of Energy Construction. The planned installed capacity is 1GW, a new 500kV substation will be built, a new 500kV transmission line will be connected to the Namo Substation in Laos, and a new patrol center base will be built simultaneously. It is expected that after the full capacity is put into operation, the annual on-grid electricity will be 1.687 billion KWH.

"Powerchina jointly issued the National New Energy Master Plan of Laos"

At the request of the Ministry of Energy and Mining of Laos, PowerChina prepared the National New Energy Master Plan of Laos and jointly held the release ceremony in Vientiane on March 25, 2024.

The plan details the distribution of wind and light resources throughout Laos, as well as the theoretical installed capacity of wind power and photovoltaic projects, grid access, and future power consumption ways, and makes preliminary economic calculations by region, describing the development blueprint of wind power and photovoltaic in Laos from 2023 to 2035, which is of great significance for the subsequent development of new energy in Laos.

From the fundamentals:

Laos is rich in scenic resources, cheap and easy to obtain land, electricity consumption is mainly exported, the average growth rate of electricity demand in the past decade has reached 13%, far exceeding the GDP growth rate, and China-Laos power cooperation is stable - by the end of August 2023, China and Laos have achieved a total of 156 million KWH of two-way electricity exchange.

In short, the Lao power industry is at a critical stage of transformation and development. Despite many problems, the development momentum is good, the policy direction is clear, and the political mutual trust between China and Laos has entered a new stage, and the cooperation between the two sides will be further deepened.

Now look at the opportunity period:

2024 will be the third time that Laos has assumed the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN. During the last chairmanship in 2016, China worked with China to actively promote the settlement of the South China Sea issue, coordinated the implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) between China and ASEAN, and promoted negotiations on a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC), and conducted fruitful cooperation.

In this rotation, Laos said that it will be committed to promoting the construction of the regional community and strengthening cooperation on ASEAN's connectivity and recovery capacity. One of the important themes between China and Laos is "promoting connectivity", which not only includes the strategic opportunity of "land-locked country becoming land-linked country", but also is expected to usher in new energy projects under the guidance of "ASEAN battery" and accelerate the development of new opportunities for power interconnection.

Recently, the major power central enterprises have been to Laos to carry out high-level public relations and customer relationship maintenance, at the same time, the Lao energy and mining minister also personally led the visit to China this month - visiting the Southern Power Grid, Yunnan "tea light complementary" photovoltaic project and other trips, but also to a certain extent indicates the willingness and attitude of cooperation.

Finally, it is expected that the central power enterprises going to Laos will seize the development opportunities of new energy and grid infrastructure interconnection in Laos, reasonably control risks, and promote the landing of comprehensive and integrated large-scale power projects in Laos at one stroke. (This article from see road official website: www.seetao.com without permission shall not be reproduced, otherwise it must be corrected, please indicate see road network + original link) See road network strategic column editor/Xu Shengpeng