Laos' Xekaman 3 Dam Break Shuts Off Power to Vietnam

Laos' Xekaman 3 Dam Break Shuts Off Power to Vietnam

A break in a critical waterway shut down a hydro-electric dam in southern
Laos and raised questions about the quality of construction at the facility
that sends most of the power it generates to Vietnam.

While officials said the Dec. 16 break in the Xekaman 3 facility's penstock
posed no threat to people living downstream, it marked the second breakdown
in the tunnel that channels water to the power turbine, RFA's Lao Service
has learned.

"The broken portion of the pipe is about 100 meters from the power house,"
said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Rocks and mud flowed
into the power house."

According to the official, the damage is extensive as the power house and
its equipment were inundated.

"The dam is no longer operational," the official told RFA's Lao Service.
"Power production is stopped."

While the break forced the six-year-old dam to go offline, the official said
villagers living downstream were safe.

The dam lies on Nam Pagnou River, a tributary of the Xekaman River near the
Village of Dak Yrang, in the Sekong Province's Dakcheung district.

"They turned off the pipe quickly," he said. "The village below the dam is
safe and there are no injuries and casualties, but all the company's
equipment suffered a lot of damage."

Phetsamone Phonepaseut, acting head of the energy and mining department of
the Sekong Province, told the Lao Economy Daily that the break occurred
around 8:45 a.m. on Dec. 16, causing a lot of damage to equipment and the
road near the dam.

Penstock problems were known

While the break shut down Xekaman 3 this month, a similar break also shut
the dam down in 2015, according to an engineering paper examining the last
year's problem.

The penstock was built on the location of an ancient landslide that was
stable until construction of the dam destabilized the rock, according to the
engineering study presented at the International Society for Rock Mechanics'
2015 Vietrock workshop.

"[A]fter the excavation of the cut slope upstream of the power house [was]
completed, the ancient landslide reactivated, destroying the penstock, so
the electricity generation has to be stopped, causing economic loss for the
owner," the study found.

According to the study prepared by Song Da consulting, the ancient landslide
is unlikely to stop moving, and it appeared to blame the 2015 break on poor
engineering.

"It is necessary to prompt an outdated lesson, but [one] often being
violated in Vietnam, this is the protective measures of the cut slope were
not constructed on time, causing serious consequences, particular during the
rainy season," wrote the study's authors, Bui Khoi Hung and Dao Manh Tung.

While the authors recommended a complete redesign of the penstock, remedial
measures designed to monitor and compensate for the ancient landslide's
continual movement were implemented, according to the study.

"These measures diminish the rate of displacement but it is difficult to
stop completely the displacement of the landslide," the authors wrote.

'There is no standard of construction in Laos'

The break spurred many local people to question the quality of the
construction of the facility on their Facebook pages.

"There is no standard of construction in Laos. See what happened?" Phet CK
posted on his Facebook feed. "It was likely that they built the dam, then
they inspected it themselves."

Another Facebook user, Nan Leuanglitthidet wrote: "The construction is not
up to standard. It happened because there was no real inspection. The
authorities should punish the builder and the field engineers."

According to the Ministry of Energy and Mines website, the 250 megawatt
Xekamen 3 started operations in 2010. The state-owned power company
Electricite du Laos owns 15 percent of the facility and the Vietnam-based
Vietnam-Lao Power Company owns 85 percent, according to the ministry's
website and a database maintained by the environmental group International
Rivers.

About 90 percent of the electricity produced by the dam is exported to
Vietnam while 10 percent is used locally.

Laos and many other Asian countries are on a dam-building spree as they try
to harness the power of the Mekong and other rivers. The Lao government sees
power generation as a way to bootstrap the country's economy, and has a goal
of becoming the "battery of Asia."

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Link to Original Article:
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/laos-xekaman-dam-12222016155523.html

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com