Nam Leuk is a 60 MW hydro power plant in Vientiane, Laos. It is operated by Electricite de Laos (EDL). Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 60k homes (estimated). It ranks #16 of 26 Laos power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2000, it is around 26 years old — long-established. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 76.5% of Laos's electricity; the national grid averages 232 gCO₂/kWh (76.7% low-carbon) (2024).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1001050.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100001023117); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 60 MW, Nam Leuk is well above the median hydro plant in Laos (44 MW). Technically it is described as unknown. Hydropower converts the energy of falling or flowing water into electricity; output depends on rainfall and reservoir level, and large dams also provide grid balancing and storage.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Electricite de Laos (EDL).
This hydro plant converts the energy of falling or flowing water through hydro turbines. It sits in a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 18.3°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
This site has effectively no heating season (tropical/equatorial climate), so winter heat loss is not the driver here. The thermal concern shifts to year-round process heat and humidity/heat-driven corrosion of hot equipment.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a moderately corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C3 — Medium), with humidity / wetness the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #9 largest hydro power plant of 19 in Laos by capacity.
Laos has 19 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 3,109 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 18.3149, 102.3251 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Nam Leuk is a 60 MW source-record hydro power plant in Vientiane, Laos, commissioned in 2000.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 60,068 homes (estimated).
Nam Leuk is operated by Electricite de Laos (EDL).
