TOKYO -- Japan's Kansai Electric Power began transmitting power from a newly built dam in Laos on Friday, marking the completion of a troubled project that now stands nearly as high as the utility's Kurobe Dam, the tallest in Japan. Nam Ngiep 1 is the first hydropower project of this scale to be independently developed by a Japanese company overseas. Kansai Electric plans to sell electricity from the dam to countries including neighboring Thailand, where demand is high, as well as leverage its experience with the project to win others in Southeast Asia and beyond.