Power utilities poised to assist flooded estates

The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand has discussed the plan with the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) and operators of the industrial parks.

Thana Puttarangsi, Egat’s deputy governor for the transmission-system business, said yesterday that the Energy Ministry had asked Egat to join with the operators to pump the flood waters out of the industrial zones.

Saha Rattana Nakorn Industrial Estate and Rojana Industrial Park will be the first, as the flood is already ebbing there. Egat is just waiting for the arrival of the pumps the ministry ordered from overseas. Once the work begins, it is expected to take 10 days to eliminate the water from the two estates.

Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan said the ministry and PTT were jointly importing 140 pumps worth Bt30 million, which are expected to reach Thailand in one or two weeks. J Power has informed the ministry that it will bring in its own 25 pumps to take water out of the two zones within this week.

PEA governor Narongsak Kammales said his agency and Egat were prepared to supply 22 kilovolts to the industrial zones to operate the pumps. Once the water has been completely expelled, it will take 30 days before electricity can be fed to the industrial zones as usual.

 

Seven teams 

The PEA has set up seven teams to survey the seven estates and also a working committee to take care of households and factories outside the industrial zones in order to bring back electricity to them as soon as possible. 

FTI chairman Payungsak Chartsutipol said both Egat and the PEA would definitely supply power to the flooded industrial parks within 30 days after the water is completely removed. 

Rojana Industrial Park has its own power plant with capacity of 270 megawatts. It has asked the PEA and Egat to supply power to factories in the park in three stages – 10MW starting on November 16, 50MW on December 1 and 180MW on January 1. 

Egat will provide 10MW to the park from its Saraburi 4 plant and 50MW from the Bang Pa-in 2 plant. It will figure out later which of its plants will supply the bulk of the 180MW.

Jirapong Vinitbutr, director of Rojana Industrial Park Co, said a quick recovery of the industrial parks would limit the damage. If the situation does not improve, a million workers in 700 factories in these parks will lose their jobs. 

Tavit Techanavakul, director of Thai Industrial Estate, the operator of the Hi-Tech Industrial Estate, said the estate was expected to start draining water out on November 11 and finish in 10 days. It is expected to reopen by December 10. The cost of restoration is estimated at Bt100,000 per rai. The estate occupies 2,400 rai (384 hectares).