IPPs to provide 5,400MW under third revision

 Under the third revision, which will be submitted for the National Energy Policy Council’s approval on Friday, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) would see its generating portion fall from 49 per cent of the total to 44 per cent. 

 Suthep Liumsirijarern, director-general of the Energy Policy and Planning Office, said the bid documents for IPP supplies should be announced by the end of the year, so that the bidding can take place early next year. 

 This would ensure that new supply entered the system on schedule, as it normally takes between seven and nine years for the process from bidding through to generation to be completed. 

 The new power should come from six natural gas-fired power plants, he said. 

 The first, with 900MW capacity, would replace the Rayong power plant of Electricity Generating, which will be decommissioned in 2016. The remaining five plants will be commissioned from 2021 onwards.

 Upon the National Energy Policy Council’s approval of the latest revision of the power development plan (PDP), the Energy Regulatory Commission will come up with bidding terms as well as potential locations, Suthep said. Preferred sites would be along the Kingdom’s natural-gas pipelines. 

 “Stipulating natural gas as the fuel source demonstrates that Thailand has no other options, due to strong resistance against coal and nuclear power plants,” he added. 

 At present, natural gas accounts for 70 per cent of the country’s power-generating fuel. 

 Still, nuclear power is included in the revised PDP, which plans to raise Thailand’s overall installed power capacity to 70,847MW by 2030. 

 Nuclear fuel is expected to generate 2,000MW in 2030, while combined-cycle power will account for 25,451MW, renewable energy for 9,516MW, cogeneration for 6,374MW, coal power for 4,400MW and gas-turbine power for 750MW. 

 Supply of 6,572MW from neighbouring countries will make up the balance. 

 The PDP has been adjusted to cope with higher power demand driven by the new electric train routes. It is also in line with the target to raise the renewable-energy portion from 12 per cent to 25 per cent by 2021, and the target to cut overall energy consumption by 25 per cent.

 As the portions of nuclear and coal, which carry the cheapest nominal costs, would be slashed under the new plan, the electricity cost at the end of the plan would be raised from Bt2.89 per kilowatt hour to Bt4.56. This excludes the operating costs of the two distributors, the Metropolitan Electricity Authority and the Provincial Electricity Authority.

 Suthep said that as more IPPs would participate in power generation, Egat would see its generating share drop to 44 per cent. The participation of private producers would, however, help reduce the state enterprise’s financing burden.

 Meanwhile, the enterprise’s share would also drop due to a cut in nuclear power generation from 5,000MW in the second revision of the PDP. The production of nuclear power would be carried out by Egat. 

 He acknowledged that Egat’s labour union was dissatisfied with this turn of events. 

 Patrapong Thepa, Egat’s assistant director for System Planning Division – Generation System Planning Division, said there should be further explanation of Egat’s role in future electricity generation. He added that its proposed new share was too low. 

 He also commented that IPPs should not be restricted to producing electricity from natural gas. They should be allowed to propose other types of fuel, including coal, as this would limit Thailand’s dependence on natural gas for electricity generation. 

 He said the restriction would benefit PTT, which is in charge of meeting natural-gas demand for domestic consumption. By specifying natural gas as the only fuel, the Energy Ministry would facilitate PTT-s long-term supply contracts for liquefied natural gas (LNG).

 Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Direk Lawansiri acknowledged that his agency would need to examine how to lower gas prices as, under the new plan, the capacity of combined-cycle power plants would rise from 35 per cent to 44 per cent.

 Initially, PTT would need to secure long-term supplies, and also increased supply from neighbouring countries like Myanmar and Cambodia, he said.