Domestic & Overseas

After the permission for reservoir impoundment issued by the Lao government on January 22, 2021, there was another good news from Nam Ou 7 Cascade Hydropower Project, which is under the engineering supervision of China Northwest Water Conservancy & Hydropower Engineering Consulting Co., Ltd. At 4:08 PM on January 24, the placing of the second-stage concrete face slab of the concrete face rockfill dam (CFRD) was successfully fulfilled, 22 days ahead of the construction schedule, marking that the main construction works of the project has achieved an important milestone, and the project construction has entered the final stage.

Located on the most upstream of Nam Ou River in northern Laos, Nam Ou 7 Cascade Hydropower Project is a Scale I Large-size (1) project with the maximum dam height of 143.5m. The dam filling is completed on August 29, 2019. The construction of concrete face slab is implemented in two stages. The stage-I concreting started on February 3 and ended on May 29, 2020, while the stage-II started on November 1, 2020 and ended on January 24, 2021. A total of 44000 m3 concrete is placed.

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Lao government has strengthened the control of personnel flow, causing a long cycles for mobilization of construction materials and goods, personnel and equipment. At the same time, the construction is challenged by tight time limit, cross operation on high slopes and complicated work procedures. All parties involved, under such unfavorable conditions, try all the best to promote the construction progress by optimizing the allocation of resources, implementing preventive measures against COVID-19 and reasonably organizing construction procedures.

Nam Ou 7 Cascade Hydropower Project is designed as a hydropower station with the largest single unit capacity among the seven cascade hydropower stations in the whole basin. The total installed capacity is 210MW and the expected average annual energy output is 836 million kW·h. After completion, the project will mitigate the power shortage in northern Laos to a great extent and, at the same time, play an important role on promoting sustainable economic development, optimizing water resource allocation and improving living standard for local people.