XeLon Hydropower Project Info by Hobo Maps - Go to Hydropower Projects Page - - - Home

In year 2018 an effort was made by an international NGO, Natural Heritage Institute (NHI), to encourage the Lao government (GOL) to preserve the Xekong river as the last major free-flowing tributary of the Mekong River in Laos. NHI published a research paper (the Report) that suggested specific lower-impact hydropower projects to be prioritized as alternatives to higher-impact projects with dams and reservoirs that would block the Xekong river.

XeLon HPP was one of these alternative projects and is summarized on this web page. Since this project was hypothetical and only studied, it never had a developer or specific promoter but we feel a need for this project to be documented and on the web for future searches.

Most info below also on our web page Xekong Basin Hydrology.

XeLon Dam & Powerhouse both seen at top of Xekong Basin map below.

The layout of the project is seen in the profile image below with a 8.4 km headrace conduit, a surge tower, penstock, powerhouse and tailrace.

XeLon & Houay Axam HPP proposed locations seen on image below contained in the Report.

In image below we estimate XeLon location would be at coordinates - 16°04'04.4"N 107°04'27.2"E (16.067889, 107.074222).

Coordinates in table below seem to be not accurate.

XeLon HPP seen in Tier Three section of priority chart below:

XeLon HPP seen in Tier Three section of priority chart below but coordinates seem to be not accurate.

In chart below, XeLon reservoir high water level is 550 meters above sea level while tailwater level is 360 masl - a 190 meter difference.