Nam Ou 5 Dam Hydropower Info by Hobo Maps - Go to Hydropower Projects Page - - Home

Nam Ou 5 hydropower project is located in in Samphan district, Phongsaly Province, Lao PDR on the Nam Ou (river) about 215 km upriver from the junction with the Mekong River and 44 km above the Nam Ou 4 dam site.

Nam Ou 5 dam images below:

Nam Ou 5 was built by Nam Ou Power Co., Ltd. (Nam Ou Power) which is a joint venture between Power-China Resources Ltd. (PowerChina) 85% and Lao state electricity corporation EDL GEN 15%..

Construction of the project was managed by Sinohydro Corporation, a subsidiary of Power China.

Nam Ou 5 began operating in May 2016. Some of the Nam Ou cascade projects have concession periods of 25 years while others have 29 year periods.

The Nam Ou cascade hydropower project is a series of seven hydroelectric dams along the Nam Ou (river) in Phongsaly and Luang Prabang provinces of northern Lao PDR. The project is managed by PowerChina and the Lao government under a build, operate and transfer (BOT) agreement signed in April 2011.

Nam Ou 5 location is at coordinates 21°24'39.6"N 102°20'38.4"E (21.411, 102.344) per image below:

Nam Ou 5 powerhouse is located in the dam structure and has three 80 MW Francis turbines producing 240 MW output with estimated annual capacity of 977 GWh.

Toshiba Hydro Power (Hanzhou) was selected as the turbine supplier for the hydro power project.

Nam Ou 5 has a 74 meter high roller compacted concrete (RCC) gravity dam.

Nam Ou 5 reservoir has a catchment area of 10,270 square km with total storage capacity of 335 milllion cubic meters of which 142 million cubic meters is Active Storage Volume regulating capacity.

The reservoir is 53.2 km long and covers an area of 17.2 square km.

The gross head of the project is 49 meters.

Nam Ou 5 has some seasonal regulation capability while Nam Ou 7 is the only one of the seven Nam Ou dams to have significant annual regulation capability.

Nam Ou 5 powerhouse images below:

Nam Ou 5 control room image below:

Nam Ou 5 project images below:

On 6 August 2026, Nam Ou hydropower projects 5, 6 and 7 were successfully connected to the China–Laos 500 kV Interconnection Station which enables surplus hydropower output from these three plants to be exported to China for the first time. The 500 kV Namor 3 substation is located in Namor district, Oudomxay Province of Lao PDR and since early 2026 has been linked further to the 500 kV Xishuangbanna power station in Jinghong city of Yunnan Province China.