Ratch upbeat over landing IPP contracts

 The Energy Ministry announced earlier that it would award contracts to six IPPs for the combined supply of 5,400MW. Bidding is scheduled to take place next year.
Ratch chief executive officer Noppol Milinthanggoon said yesterday that the company had prepared two plots of land at its existing plant area for the construction of new facilities, each with a capacity of 800MW-900MW.
The listed company has also sought additional locations, but he acknowledged that it was difficult to win approval for IPP plant establishment at new sites, given growing public opposition to such projects.

PARTNERSHIP
Noppol said he believed the government would relax some of the rules in the new IPP bidding round in order to make it easier for Ratch, in which the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) holds a major stake, to participate and benefit national electricity security.
Ratch is ready to partner with any strong potential companies wishing to take part in the bidding, he added.
The company was barred from previous IPP bidding back in 2007, given its 45-per-cent ownership by Egat, which in effect is the sole purchaser of power from all producers.
Coupled with the Omsin Fund’s 1.5-per-cent holding and the Social Security Fund’s 4.68-per-cent stake, Ratch is majority-owned by government agencies and thus considered a state enterprise.
Besides Ratch, giant firms |such as PTT Utility, Thai Oil and IRPC are reportedly interested |in contending in next year’s bidding.
Meanwhile, Ratch’s second-quarter operating results, according to the consolidated financial statements of the company and its subsidiaries, showed a profit of Bt3.296 billion, up Bt1.405 billion or 74.28 per cent compared to earnings of Bt1.891 billion over the same period last year.
Besides its power plants and related businesses in Thailand, overseas operations including the Nam Ngum2 hydro-power plant EDL-Generation, both in Laos, and Ratch-Australia Corp (RAC) generated significant revenues to the company.

MILESTONES
Project-progress milestones |in the first six months of the year included the power-purchase agreement of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydro-power project |in Laos, expected to be signed with Egat in the current quarter; the Huay Bong 3 wind farm’s completion of the installation of 17 turbines; and 10 out of 11 solar farms becoming operational and distributing electricity to the Provincial Electricity Authority.
During the first half, the company exercised more than Bt3 billion worth of investment from its Bt7-billion fiscal budget.
Ratch also realised Bt 2.25 billion in revenue from its investment restructuring in the Loy Yang-A and Collinsville coal-fired power plants in Australia, as well as its return on investment from RAC. In addition, the company gained Bt106 million from EDL-Generation dividends.
RAC, a subsidiary in which the company holds an 80-per-cent stake through RH International (Singapore) Corp, has also accepted a proposal to terminate the Collinsville power-purchase agreement as offered by the plant’s off-taker, Stanwell Corp, according to Ratch’s filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand yesterday.
RAC will receive 99.57 million Australian dollars (Bt3.29 billion) in compensation.
Collinsville, a 40-year old Queensland plant with a generating capacity of 180MW, is wholly owned by RAC. The terminated power-purchase agreement was due to expire in 2016.