T&T Group's Savan 1 wind power plant in Laos reaching commercial operation by the end of 2025 not only marks the completion of an energy project, but also shows how a Vietnamese private enterprise proactively solves three key problems at the same time: power source, transmission and output.
More notably, behind it is a series of field deployment stories, concretizing a cross-border energy project – from decisions at the desk to generating stable operating electricity in the system.
Overcoming sun and winning rain on the windy plateau
Savan 1 is a typical example of a model being formed in the energy sector: Vietnamese private enterprises invest in renewable power sources abroad and proactively build their own transmission infrastructure to bring electricity to serve the domestic system.
This is not a time-sensitive choice, but the result of long-term calculations on energy security, wind source quality and output control, in the context that the development potential of domestic wind power is increasingly limited by planning, transmission grid and investment procedures.
On January 9, 2025, the Lao Ministry of Planning and Investment awarded a concession contract to Savan 1 Wind Power Co., Ltd. - a member unit of T&T Group. The contract has a term of 25 years, a scale of 495MW, and a total investment of about 768 million USD.
Right at the time of signing, the project had established three key pillars: having an electricity purchase and sale contract with EVN, having a capital arrangement plan and having a policy to invest in a separate 220kV transmission line to bring electricity to Vietnam. These three factors helped Savan 1 avoid the "deadly bottleneck" of many other energy projects: completing the plant but not being able to generate commercial electricity.
T&T Group aims to complete phase 1 with a capacity of 300MW in December 2025 - a rare progress for wind power projects of the same type, especially in the context that previous power export projects from Laos to Vietnam required many years of implementation, mainly due to dependence on transmission grid progress and intergovernmental procedures.
Immediately after the concession contract was signed, a special working group from Vietnam went to Laos to conduct preliminary surveys and prepare implementation plans. In August 2024, the future construction site area appeared with "three no's": no infrastructure, no electricity, no water, no utilities - a common situation with large infrastructure projects in areas far from the center, but rarely fully reflected in pre-feasibility reports.
Savannakhet wind blows pink from all sides, carrying the dry heat of the dry season of the Land of a Million Elephants. The road to the construction site is almost non-existent. From Lao Bao border gate, the delegation has to travel more than 100km, of which the final section is trails through the forest, many places just fit one car body.
Every day, brothers bring sticky rice, rice balls, measuring equipment and walk dozens of kilometers. There are sections where the car cannot continue, everyone has to walk nearly 30km to survey the turbine position," Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hanh, Deputy Head of Construction Department in charge of electrical and mechanical engineering, recalled.
No fixed residence, no phone signal, no clean water. The initial survey phase was entirely based on human strength. Some unstable personnel have withdrawn to Vietnam, but the core group remains with the sole belief that the project will be completed on schedule.
Without roads, super-heavy equipment cannot access the turbine installation location. The only solution is to open the entrance to the construction site - a decision that significantly increases initial investment costs, but is vital to project progress. In a short time, 27.7km of access roads were formed, sufficient for large transport vehicles; along with more than 45km of internal roads serving construction.
Another bottleneck is the Se Pon River. In the rainy season, heavy floods cause temporary bridges and spillways to be frequently swept away, and the transportation of equipment requires self-made ferries, which pose high risks and make it difficult to control progress. In March 2025, T&T Group decided to build the solid Tangatay bridge, more than 80m long and 6m wide, sufficient to carry large convoys of vehicles - an infrastructure item that is not in the "core" of the wind power project, but it determines the survival of the entire construction chain.
On the day the bridge was completed, heavy rain came and swept away the temporary road below. The bridge became the only way to help the construction site operate continuously," Mr. Hanh recounted.
From this point on, Savan 1 enters a new state. More than 70km of new roads and concrete bridges not only serve the wind power project, but also leave a basic infrastructure layer for the area, creating a premise for other socio-economic activities in the future.
Footprints of private enterprises outside the territory
In parallel with ground infrastructure, the 220kV transmission line from the plant to Vietnam was deployed almost immediately after signing the transfer contract. The power line is more than 50km long, directly connected to the Lao Bao 220kV substation, completed just over 6 months later - a rare milestone for cross-border transmission projects.
On the ground, more than 1,000 engineers, officials and workers of the investor and contractors are working continuously to maintain the pace of progress. Meetings are held right at the construction site, focusing on handling each specific item, avoiding the situation of "circumventing reports". "One day late can lead to a chain of delays behind," said Deputy Project Director Tong Van Binh.
Living conditions are still very harsh. Domestic water must be purchased from the district capital 60km away, sometimes up to 1 million VND/m3. Food must be stored weekly. Strong winds with an average speed of 11m/s - ideal conditions for turbines - but it is a big challenge for humans, causing many workers to often get sick due to changes in temperature and high working intensity.
On December 26, 2025, electricity from Savannakhet officially went into commercial operation and connected to the Vietnamese grid. With the team at the construction site, COD is not the end point, but the status change point: the project begins to be truly responsible for the power system, for the electricity purchase and sale contract, and for the financial indicators that have been calculated from the beginning.
After nearly a month of operation, the plant has brought more than 70 million kWh of electricity to Vietnam, creating stable cash flow according to the scenario. More importantly, Savan 1 shows the ability to realize a model in which private enterprises not only invest in sources, but also proactively solve the problem of transmission and commercial operation.
What is happening in Savannakhet shows that this is not just a cross-border wind power project, but has become a practical case of the energy infrastructure deployment capacity of Vietnamese private enterprises. Savan 1 is present as a link in regional energy infrastructure, associated with national energy security and Vietnam-Laos cooperation space.
Not only supplementing clean electricity sources for Vietnam, the project also contributes to concretizing Vietnam-Laos energy cooperation agreements, strengthening infrastructure connections, and expanding economic development space.
In the context of global energy transition, when wind power is likened to the "green gold mine" of the era, T&T's bold investment and successful implementation of large-scale projects abroad shows the new stature of the business - not only doing business within national borders, but also starting to think and act at the regional level.
More specifically, Savan 1's story affirms: When meeting sufficient financial, organizational capacity and long-term vision, businesses can clearly share a part of the infrastructure investment burden with the State and turn strategic policies into electricity flows operating in the system. From this perspective, Savan 1 is not only a successful project in terms of progress, but also an important precedent for cross-border energy cooperation models in the coming period.
