Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos) possesses large hydrologic resources, converting hydropower into the most important renewable energy resource in the country. Recently the Lao government, multilateral organizations and NGOs have developed large hydropower projects in tributaries of the Mekong River. These projects usually do not benefit poor people in remote areas where the prevailing source of electricity consists of private pico-hydropower units (<5 kW). These systems face several challenges such as coping with low quality hardware, risk of electrocution and damage to electronic devices and light bulbs. Non-governmental institutions like Lao Institute of Renewable Energy (LIRE) in collaboration with donor funding organizations are seeking to alleviate this situation. These institutions pursue the upscaling and improvement of quality, safety, efficiency and reliability of pico-hydro technology through projects based on the design and implementation of demonstration sites and training programs in rural areas. During the project presented in this work, a feasibility study is carried out to identify a suitable village for the implementation of a demonstration site. Possible locations are analyzed according to social, environmental and technical aspects. For each option, an electric system is designed. For the final selection of the best option, the following design constraints were considered: flexibility, cost effectiveness (to be affordable to poor communities) and easiness of reproduction by people without deep technical knowledge. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.