Abstract—Electric energy generation mostly from hydroelectric power, thermal power, nuclear power and renewable sources is one of the major key factors for economic and social development in the entire developed and developing nation of the world. The Government of Laos (GoL) has declared that the small hydropower (SHP) with the capacity less than 15 MW is Renewable Energy (RE) and it is playing an important role in the rural development area especially On-grid areas and Off-grid areas. The main challenges for the Government of Laos is how to manage the SHP for the sustainable ways in order to contribute for the GoL’s golden target for household to have electricity for 90% in the year 2020 and reduce the poverty in rural. Currently, the government has already approved 35 projects with the capacity less than 5 Mw for the rural development. But the main challenges for the projects are the unreliability supply of electricity to rural areas due to the suitable method for managing and operating of the project has not established. In this study the main purpose is to analyze the 12 existing small hydropower projects in Lao PDR (with the capacity less than 5 MW) that was not sustainable then will propose the recommendation of the suitable management tools for sustainable management of small hydropower in rural area of Lao PDR by using the Economic, Social and Ecological blueprint model (ESE model).

Index Terms—Small Hydro Project (SHP), government of Lao PDR (GoL), economic, social and ecological blueprint model (ESE model)

Cite: Akhomdeth Vongsay and Xayphone Bounsou, "Sustainable Management of Small Hydropower for Rural Electrification in Lao PDR by Economic, Social and Environment Blueprint Perspective," Jounal of Automation and Control Engineering, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 181-186 June, 2014. doi: 10.12720/joace.2.2.181-186