KHAMMOUANE, Laos – Thailand will early next month sign a preliminary contract with Laos to buy $200 million of power a year from Indochina’s largest hydroelectric dam, Thai officials said. Chavalit Pichalai, head of Thailand’s National Energy Policy Office’s power unit, said the state-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), would ink an initial power purchase agreement (PPA) with dam investors in Bangkok on February 5. EGAT will take 920 megawatts from the Nam Theun Two dam for 25 years from 2008, he said. “The signing of the initial PPA is a very important step before the final PPA agreement signing in June since we have had to agree on all significant details beforehand,” Chavalit told Reuters. “After the final June agreement, it will take six years to build the dam and Thailand can expect some power from the dam in the year 2008,” he said. The deal has been on the table for almost a decade. In the mid-1990s, Bangkok planned to buy 3,000 MW from Laos for various hydroelectricity projects from 2006. But after Thailand plunged into economic turmoil in 1997, the deal was scaled down to a total of just 1,500 MW. Thailand’s Electricity Generating Plc and Electricite du Laos each hold 25 percent of the Nam Theun Two project. EFD International, a unit of Electricite de France [EDF.UL], holds 35 percent and Thai construction contractor Italian-Thai Development Plc holds 15 percent. Laos has been urging Thailand to sign a PPA to allow the government and other investors to seek a loan from the World Bank.