Sơn La Dam

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Sơn La Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Da River in Ít Ong, Mường La District, Sơn La Province, Vietnam. It is the largest hydroelectric power plant in Southeast Asia. The dam is 138 meters high, about 1,000 meters long, and 90 meters wide at the base. It creates a reservoir that holds about 3.1 cubic kilometers of water and covers around 440 square kilometers.

Construction started in 2005, and the dam began supplying power to the grid in 2010. It was officially completed and opened in December 2012. The power plant has six 400 MW turbines, giving a total installed capacity of 2,400 MW and an annual generation of about 10,246 GWh. The project cost about US$2 billion and is owned by Vietnam Electricity.

Relocation was a major part of the project, with more than 91,000 ethnic minority people displaced, the largest resettlement in Vietnam’s history. Two pilot resettlement sites were set up in 2003, and relocation started in 2005.