Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction To Develop Laos Hydropower Plant With Korea Western Power

• Companies sign MoU to cooperate on development of 728MW hydropower plant in Southern Laos
• Doosan actively expanding its green energy business via recently won wind power, hydrogen and hydropower projects

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction announced on November 30 that it had signed an MoU with Korea Western Power to cooperate on developing a hydropower plant in Phou Ngoy, Laos. The Thailand-based developer Charoen Energy and Water Asia (CEWA) had initially signed the deal with the Laos government to develop the Phou Ngoy project and since then, has been jointly executing the project with Korea Western Power. A tri-party investment agreement was entered into with Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation(KIND) in August this year.

Under the MoU, Korea Western Power and Doosan will jointly pursue development of the Phou Ngoy hydropower plant and cooperate on the local manufacturing of key equipment for hydropower plant projects, as well as on the development of sales routes to promote exporting of the products.

The 728MW Phou Ngoy hydropower plant will be built in Pakse, a city located in the Southern Laos province of Champasak. The project is valued to be about USD 2.4 billion and will be executed using the BOT(Build-Operate-Transfer) approach. This is to be an EPC project, with Doosan handling the supply of main equipment and the construction work. Starting in January next year, Korea Western Power and Doosan will jointly conduct a site survey, after which basic engineering will be carried out for the project. The plant construction will start in 2022 and be completed by 2029.

Inwon Park, CEO of Doosan Heavy’s Plant EPC Business Group said, “With our recent hydropower, wind power and hydrogen projects, Doosan Heavy’s drive to expand our green energy business is producing visible results. To capitalize on the hydropower plant business, which is seen as a high potential market both in Korea and overseas, we plan to boost our efforts to promote the local manufacturing and engineering of key equipment and will lead the efforts to promote the green energy industry in Korea.”

Doosan is actively expanding its hydropower business, with the drive to accelerate the energy transition process in the Korean and overseas markets. In October of this year, Doosan had signed a deal with Korea Southeast Power to build the Nepal Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower plant, which is worth 410 billion won, and agreed to also participate in the development of a hydropower plant in Pakistan. The company also signed a MoU earlier this month with Korea Midland Power to jointly develop overseas hydropower markets.

In September of last year, Doosan signed a business and technology cooperation agreement on hydropower generation with the leading global company, Austria-based Andritz Hydro, in order to enhance its technological self-reliance in hydropower engineering. Doosan is currently pursuing the local manufacturing of a 30MW hydroelectric turbine and generator jointly with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power(KHNP).