Kensuke Yamaguchi is a project assistant professor at the University of Tokyo.
Laos' National Power Development Plan (NPDP), published in 2020, marked a critical turning point in the country's electricity sector planning process. Designed in response to the mounting debt of the state-owned power utility, Electricite du Laos (EDL) -- which contributes significantly to the country's approximately 40% share of publicly held debt owed to China -- the NPDP largely aims to curtail excess generation capacity-building in the energy sector and encourage the buildout of transnational electricity transmission networks.
