On September 6, 2019, Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO), headquartered in Osaka Prefecture, announced that it has begun commercial operation of Nam Ngiep 1 Hydropower Plant in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos) on September 5.
The Nam Ngiep 1 Hydropower Plant’s construction began in October 2014. The plant consists of two power stations; the main power station has a generation capacity of approximately 270MW, and the re-regulation power station has a capacity of 20MW. The main power station is equipped with a large-scale dam, which is 167m high and 530m long. The plant is a Build Operate Transfer (BOT) project and supplies 1.6 billion kWh of electricity in Laos and Thailand annually. The hydropower plant is located on the Nam Ngiep River, one of the tributaries of Mekong River which flows across the border between Laos and Thailand.
In April 2006, KEPCO signed a project development agreement (PDA) with the Laos government. In April 2013, a joint venture, Nam Ngiep 1 Power Company (NNP1) was established to develop the Nam Ngiep 1 project. The joint venture members are KEPCO, EGAT International, a subsidiary of Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), and Lao Holding State Enterprise, a subsidiary of the Laos government. The NNP1 is headquartered in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.[1] In August 2013, NNP1 entered into a 27-year power purchasing agreement (PPA) with EGAT and Électricité du Laos (EDL).[2]