ASIA 2016 - The Sixth International Conference on Water Resources & Hydropower Development

Vientiane is the charming and friendly capital city of Laos, and also the largest city in the country. Located on the banks of the Mekong river, the city is steeped in legend and history. It is the home of the massive gilded stupa, Pha That Luang, a national symbol of Laos. The streets are lined with trees, French colonial buildings, vibrant street markets, Buddhist temples, and noodle shops. Hotels and restaurants offer a rich selection of Lao and international cuisine.

Just outside the city is Buddha Park, a garden containing more than 200 sculptures depicting the gods of Buddhist and Hindu myths.

The city offers a wide range of world class hotels, from the major 5* Landmark and Don Chan, overlooking the Mekong river, to smaller boutique hotels in the centre of town. The modern, spacious and well equipped National Convention Centre is an ideal venue for the Conference and Exhibition.

Accommodation is being reserved for ASIA 2016 participants in a variety of hotels to suit all budgets. A shuttle bus service will be available to take delegates to and from the Convention Centre each day.

As is usual for this series of events, a full social programme is being organized for ASIA 2016 delegates and accompanying persons. Speakers and Chairpersons will be welcomed to a reception and briefing on the evening preceding the Conference.

A Welcome Reception, including a buffet supper and entertainment, will be held on the first evening of the event, and on the second day, there will be an extended opening of the exhibition, with refreshments served. This will provide an extra opportunity to make contact with the international experts participating at the exhibition, and to make important new business contacts over a relaxing drink.

The Conference Dinner will take place on the final evening, to bring ASIA 2016 to a memorable end.

All social events are being planned to give international visitors to Laos an insight into the charming culture of the country, and to sample some fine examples of Southeast Asian cuisine.

Accompanying persons’ programme
The fascinating and colourful centre of Vientiane will be a good starting point for accompanying persons to begin a three-day package of cultural and touristic visits. Temples, galleries, shops, markets and a number of historical landmarks will be visited.

There will also be excursions out of town, with a chance to see village life, and some fascinating landscapes.

All excursions will include lunch, and the group will return to Vientiane in time for accompanying persons to join the evening social programme. Full details of the package of tours will be announced shortly.

We now invite abstracts to be submitted on the themes listed below or related topics.
Development potential and planning

• Regional overview and masterplans    
• Potential, planning and new developments; regional insights
• Trans-boundary and cascade scheme planning
• New planning tools
• Flood early warning systems and mitigation measures

Financial, legal and contractual aspects

• New approaches to project finance
• Selection and screening of projects for private development
• Commercial and financial risk management
• PPAs for transboundary power trading
• Concession agreements (balancing the interests of the parties)
• Procurement of concessionaires
• Contractual aspects of private hydro development
• Construction arrangements (alternative procurement models)

Environmental and social aspects

• Design adaptations and adaptive resource management for climate change
• Cumulative impact assessment and cross border cooperation
• Rapid Sustainability Assessment Tool: examples from the Mekong region
• Asset conservation including sedimentation management
• Problems with biological growth in hydro plants
• Fish protection and management of reservoirs and waterways
• Biomass clearance and biodiversity offset creation
• Preserving and promoting cultural heritage assets
• ESIA and IFI safeguard workshop  
• Hydrology and environmental flow assessment; downstream management
• Capacity building and transfer to the next generation; a participatory approach

Hydropower and sustainable development

• Maximizing and communicating the multiple benefits of hydro
• The food-water-energy nexus approach
• Synergy among the renewables
• Making hydro more competitive (managing and mitigating risk)
• Regional development through power trading Hydropower technology
• Innovations in hydraulic machinery: research and development
• Use of hydro and pumped storage in the regulation of electrical systems
• Recent developments in electrical systems
• Operational and maintenance issues
• Powerplant safety
• Pumped-storage technology; applications in Asia
• Small and low-head hydro
• Engineering quality in a competitive hydro market
• Marine energy potential

Civil engineering

• Materials for dams and appurtenant works
• Advances in design and construction techniques
• Recent developments in dam construction
• Innovative approaches to evaluating safety
• Monitoring and engineering for safe structures and sites
• Underground works and tunnelling
• Uprating and refurbishment of existing infrastructure
• Spillways and gates: design, function and innovation
• Small dams
• Low cost irrigation and storage solutions

Two technical tours are planned to follow the ASIA 2016 conference. Beginning on 4 March, they will last between 3 and 4 days. The following outlines are provisional, and details will be confirmed shortly.

Tour 1 – Northern Laos: Xayaburi scheme
The Xayaburi project is a 1285 MW, run-of-river scheme under construction on the lower Mekong, about 30 km east of Xayaburi town in northern Laos.

The main dam will be 820 m long and 32.6 m high, with a rated hydraulic head of 18 m. Key features of the dam include a navigation lock and the two largest fish passes in the world. It is expected that these recently installed structures will be visited during the tour. Each of the three pairs of navigation lock mitre gates has a combined weight of 320 tonnes. Each mitre gate leaf was transported the two miles from the on-site manufacturing facility to the lock site in two pieces and assembled in the lock. The outlet radial gates are located in the lower level of the spillway structure. Each of the four 12 ¥ 16 m radial gates weighs 400 tonnes, and has a design head of 37 m.

The powerplant will house seven 175 MW Kaplan units and one 60 MW Kaplan unit for total generation of 7406 GWh/year. Around 95 per cent of the electricity will be exported to Thailand through a planned 200 km-long transmission line.

As well as a visit to the Xayaburi project, delegates will have the opportunity to visit the historic and scenic town of Luang Prabang. The town is sited at the confluence of the Nam Khan and Mekong rivers about 300 km north of Vientiane. The old town centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the city is well known for its numerous Buddhist temples and monasteries.

Tour 2 – Central Laos: Nam Ngiep 1 scheme
This tour will be less rigorous than the other tours and will visit sites within driving distance of Vientiane. Nevertheless, the distances and road surfaces encountered will still make the trip reasonably arduous.

The 290 MW Nam Ngiep 1 scheme is under construction to the north-east of Vientiane, extending across Bolikhamxay and Xaysomboun provinces. Two dams and power stations are under construction along the Ngiep river in Bolikhamxay. The main 148-m high dam will create a water storage reservoir covering a 67 km2 area, extending into Xaysomboun province.

At the main dam site, a primary power station, will generate electricity for export to Thailand and will release water to a regulating pond where a second dam and 19 MW power station will generate electricity for local use. The re-regulating dam will ensure predictable releases of water to minimize disruption to downstream water levels.

Continuing further west, there may then be opportunity to visit the 60 MW Nam Leuk project or the 615 MW Nam Ngum 2 scheme. The larger of these schemes is approximately 35 km upstream of the existing Nam Ngum 1 dam and is located on the Nam Ngum river, which is one of the major tributaries to the Mekong river.

The recently completed project produces energy for the Thai grid and comprises cofferdams, two river diversion tunnels, a 185 m-high concrete faced rockfill dam, a gated spillway with chute and flip-bucket and a power waterway system consisting of a headrace tunnel, manifold and three, steel-lined, inclined pressure shafts. An underground powerhouse is equipped with three 205 MW units, generating 2220 GWh/year.

In terms of water resources and hydropower development, Asia is unique. The region hosts some of the largest dams and powerplants in the world, for example in China, India, Russia, Malaysia and Pakistan, as well as many thousands of small-scale hydro and irrigation schemes in rural areas. The vast remaining potential of Asia offers enormous opportunities to develop clean renewable energy, while using the associated water storage to bring a number of other benefits for communities. There are major business opportunities for all involved in advancing sustainable hydropower and multipurpose water infrastructure in Asia. For the less developed countries in the region, hydro potential is equivalent to a gold mine: power trading is helping to meet the rapidly increasing demand for electricity in neighbouring countries, while boosting national economies, and supplying local requirements. But it is well known that Asian water infrastructure faces some of the toughest challenges, for example: extreme floods, large magnitude earthquakes, challenging site conditions, and sedimentation issues.

Against this background, Aqua~Media launched its series of biennial international conferences for Asia in 2006, bringing together experts from all parts of the world, to focus on issues specific to the plans, activities, achievements and challenges of Asia. Events have taken place in Bangkok, Danang, Kuching, Chiang Mai and Colombo. Technical, financial, economic, social and environmental issues are discussed in sessions, panels and workshops.