Laos improves electrical production to 6bn kWh

Electricity generation in Laos has reached around six billion kWh this year, with the majority of production based on hydropower and for export, despite domestic demand remaining unsatisfied, local media reported Monday. Exported electricity reached over four billion kWh, with the allocation of domestic provision for the first half of the current fiscal year at one billion kWh. Export of electricity garnered Laos 217 million U.S. dollars, with domestic sales earning 112 million. By the end of 2012 only 83 percent of Lao households had access to electricity, according to a report on socio-economic development in the first six months of the 2012 - 2013 fiscal year published in the state-run media organization, KPL. The best electrical access is in Vientiane, where 100 percent of households are electrified. The Eastern province of Huaphanh has the least access, with only 47 percent of households connected. Electricity produced by Laos is primarily exported to Vietnam and Thailand. The government is actively pursuing energy as a major export to help raise Laos, one of the poorest nations in the region, out of its Least Developed Nation status.