Nam Phak Dam Bolaven Hydropower Info

Nam Phak Dam - Bolaven Plateau Hydropower Info by Hobo Maps - Go to Hydropower Projects Page - - Home

Nam Phak is pronounced like "Nam Pack".

There are two different hydropower projects in Laos named Nam Phak and we have a separate web page for each.

Click HERE to see our web page for the northern Laos Nam Phak project in Oudomxay Province that is in the planning stage..

This web page below is for the Nam Phak project in southern Laos on the Bolaven Plateau in Champasak Province being developed by CS Energy Co. Ltd. .

Nam Phak Hydropower Project is located east of Pakse and about 20 km south-west of Paksong town as seen in image below.

Nam Phak Hydropower location in red outline below on Bolaven Plateau green area:

Nam Phak Bolaven site image below:

The project has two reservoirs and two power stations with the larger station below the Bolaven plateau cliffs.

Nam Phak HPP layout map below under very active construction in 2025.

In the above layout we can see locations:

Phou Pong Dam at 15°07'44.3"N 106°06'01.0"E (15.128972, 106.100278)

Nam Pha Dam at 15°06'55.0"N 106°07'23.2"E (15.115278, 106.123111)

Nam Phak Dam at 15°04'54.6"N 106°08'13.0"E (15.081833, 106.136944)

Nam Pha Powerhouse at 15°06'34.8"N 106°06'32.3"E (15.109667, 106.108972)

Nam Phak Powerhouse at 15°03'33.4"N 106°05'12.8"E (15.059278, 106.086889)

Camp & Administration at 15°04'29.5"N 106°08'26.0"E (15.074861, 106.140556)

The two drone-view layout maps below do not have north at the top and have distorted scale with perspective view.

The project is one of the large-scale projects that the Lao government and the Japanese private company Kobe Green Power Co., Ltd. (KGPC) agreed to in a Memorandum of Understanding to study the feasibility of the project on May 31, 2007 along with a solar power generation project.

CS Energy Co. has selected Tractebel in Thailand to oversee the procurement and construction phases of the Nam Phak hydropower project.

The project was originally designed as a 150 MW project but later changed to a 128 MW project.

Initial work began in March 2021 and the project was originally scheduled for completion in late 2025 but it looks like completion may be in 2027.

Vietnam-based Song Da 5 Joint Stock Company (Song Da 5) is the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) general contractor for the project.

Vietnam-based Construction Joint Stock Company 47 is the construction contractor for all 3 dams (Nam Pha, Nam Phak and Phouphong) with total contracted value of nearly US $35 million.

Voith India is the supplier and construction contractor for the electrical engineering work.

Nam Phak HPP Bolaven site view images below:

Project Owners: Chaluen Sekong Energy Co., Ltd. 85%, EDL 10%, and Kobe Green Energy 5%.
Basic Design: Tractebel Engineering Ltd.
Consultant: Tractebel Engineering Ltd.
Geological survey SSSDC, BMEC

Initial survey: 2007, by KOBE Company (KGPC)
Initial project owner: KOBE Company (KGPC)
feasibility study : in 2010, by (AECOM)

Updated feasibility study : 2014-2015 by: Lao Major India.
Transfer Project Ownership: 2017, Chaluen Sekong Energy Co., Ltd.
Updated feasibility study : 2017-2020 by Poyry / Afry Consultants
Start building infrastructure: 2021 By Chaluen Sekong Energy Co., Ltd.

Many streams on the Bolaven Plateau will have their flows diverted by weirs, tunnels and water channels into Northern and Southern diversion systems and into the Nam Pha upper reservoir. From there water is channeled through a 8 MW power plant and generates power with the discharge released into the lower Phou Pong reservoir.

Water from Phou Pong reservoir then goes into an intake structure and through a 2,847 meter-long headrace tunnel and 1,859 meter-long penstock down 700 meters in elevation to a 120 MW power plant at the base of the Bolaven plateau escarpment.

120 + 8 = 128 MW combined capacity with 586 GWh annual output potential.

A 115 kV transmission line is planned but not sure who will offtake the project's output. CS Energy website mentions export to both Vietnam and Cambodia as possibilities while the project location is also close to Thailand.

Nam Pha Reservoir will have normal surface water level of 993 meters above sea level and Phou Pong Reservoir 909 meters above sea level.

Nam Phak site at Bolaven Plateau escarpment drop-off in images below:

Nam Pha Dam asphalt concrete core (ACC) installation image at the dam below in August 2024.

Asphalt Concrete Core dams - All three of the project dams will have asphalt concrete core (ACC) style construction. The main dam's concrete core construction will reach 80 meters in height while the other two ACC dams will reach 50 meters in height. This is a new form of dam construction for Laos with many complex and demanding requirements for waterproofing the compacted asphalt cores.

Installing an asphalt core will make it possible to continue construction of the dams in the rainy season and allow an early start of reservoir impoundment.

See drone-view Facebook video of asphalt concrete core construction progress as of December 2024 HERE .

Images below of construction progress April 2025