Methodology of rooftop solar power purchases opposed

Dusit Krue-Ngarm, chairman of the association, submitted a letter dated August 29 to the Office of the Energy Regulatory Commission (OERC) and the Provincial Electricity Generation (PEA) opposing the process for purchasing 200 megawatts of electricity generated by rooftop solar PVs as stated in the OERC’s draft regulations. 

The draft specified a selection process according to the sequence in which the offers of electricity for sale were received, or on a “first come first served” basis. The association claimed this process was unfair and might even be illegal. 

Moreover, submission of the required documents should be allowed at PEA offices in every province instead of the single available location – the regional representative office. This would minimise the advantage of distance some firms would have over others.   

According to Dusit, another vital issue is that the department should drop the requirement for the No 4 factory operations permit for installation and sales of electricity from the rooftop solar PV project as it would be a major obstacle to proceeding with the project. 

The rooftop PV project has generation capacity of at least 3.7 kilowatts, which means it is labelled as a power plant, needs the No 4 permit and must comply with city zoning laws that ban power plants from locating within 200 metres of communities, schools, temples, hospitals and state offices. Hence this project, which the Energy Ministry said would supply 200MW of power this year will not be able fulfil that task, as it could only generate 3.7kW from the solar cells installed on residential homes. Since it takes six to 12 months to obtain the No 4 factory-operation permit, the generation and sale of 200MW would not be possible. 

The association said an initial survey showed that a large number of firms were interested in this project.