Energy regulator seeks measures to prevent blackouts in future
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The Energy Regulatory Commission is seeking cooperation from the three state electricity agencies in developing measures to minimise the threat of blackouts recurring, following the power outage in 14 southern provinces last week.
ERC chairman Direk Lavansiri said yesterday’s meeting with the agencies had not discussed who was responsible for the May 21 blackout, but was focused on developing of short-, medium- and long-term guidelines for their officials in deciding how to deal with future situations threatening power supply.
The guidelines are expected to be finalised in the next two weeks, he said.
The Federation of Thailand Industries will also propose to the Energy Ministry measusres next week to deal with the possibility of further blackouts, including the government boosting the electricity reserve and the construction of power plants in all regions.
ERC member Pallapa Ruangrong said it must established first of all whether last week’s blackout in the South had in fact been the result of an accident, before apportioning any blame. She cited Article 87of the 2007 Energy Business Act, which states that the state and private holders of permits to produce power with a power transmission control network are bound by duty to effectively ensure a reliable power system.
If these holders fail to comply, the affected parties can bring a case for damages to the regulator to claim compensation from the power producers. She said that in the case of the blackout in 14 southern provinces, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) could decide on its own how to prevent future outages, but the agency may not dare to make such a decision.
Therefore, the ERC will issue guidelines for joint practices by the three state electricity agencies with the regulator in the event of a power emergency. If the power producers strictly comply with the guidelines, they will not be deemed guilty or held responsible for any future power disruptions, she explained.
Pallapa added that while a lightning strike on a power transmission line could in itself be deemed an accident, it also needed to be determined whether the actions of officials after the event fell into the same category.
If a deeper investigation found an outage to have been caused or exacerbated by Egat’s negligence or misconduct of the situation, people could claim compensation from Egat.
She added that the regulator would not use that compensation to be converted as a reduction of the FT (fuel tariff) rate for people across the country, and that it would only apply to the affected households.
