Egco plans to construct 900 MW power plant in Nakhon Si Thammarat by 2016

 Sahust Pratuknukul, president of Egco, the country’s first independent power producer, said yesterday that construction would commence next year. After electricity begins to be generated by 2016, the new plant will contribute annual profit of at least Bt500 million.
The company plans to bid for two IPP (independent power producer) projects in the country this year.
Egco’s existing power plants at home and abroad have a combined capacity of 4.97 gigawatts.
Yesterday Egco completed the increase in its stake in a Quezon coal power plant in the Philippines from 52 per cent to 98 per cent for Bt11 billion.
The higher shareholding is meant to strengthen the group’s profit, as Egco will realise Bt1.5 billion in profit from the plant this year, up from Bt1 billion last year, and Bt2 billion a year in the future, Sahust said.
The group predicts its net profit this year will be more than Bt5 billion.
Egco wants to expand the Quezon plant by 500MW from 460MW. It will discuss the plan with the Philippine government.
Besides the power-generating business, Egco is negotiating to acquire a coal mine in Indonesia with reserves of more than 1 million tonnes to secure a source of fuel. The result is expected to be known in two months.
Egco also hopes to boost its renewable-energy portfolio within three years from 1 per cent at present to nearly 10 per cent, or 300MW, in line with state policy.
The company is interested in solar and wind farms, with investment set at Bt100 million per megawatt, Sahust said. Egco will take over solar farms now under construction with the capacity of 7-8MW each from investors who were granted an adder of Bt8 per kilowatt and is seeking partners to support the funding.
The solar-farm deals will become clearer soon, he said.
Egco recently invested in three solar power plants – SPP2, SPP3 and SPP 4 – with the country’s first solar-tracking system. The three projects, located in Saraburi, Si Sa Ket and Ubon Ratchathani, have a combined capacity of 22MW.
Land and Houses Bank yesterday contributed half of a Bt2.46-billion syndicated loan for these three solar farms. Kasikornbank is the mandated lead arranger, chipping in 25 per cent, with the remaining 25 per cent coming from ICBC (Thai).
Egco will invest in wind farms on its own because construction costs are higher than for solar farms.
“We plan to build three wind-power plants with a combined capacity of 200MW in Chaiyaphum. We will start construction after getting the green light from Egat,” Sahust said.