April launch for Power Development Plan

Eppo is expected to hold a public hearing on the new PDP next month. The revised version based on recommendations from the hearing will be submitted for the National Energy Policy Council’s consideration in March before taking effect in April. The plan will be used through 2036.

Eppo estimated that electricity demand under the new plan will be 10,000 megawatts lower than specified in the third edition of the 2010 PDP. The new estimate is based on an assumption that economic growth throughout the period of the new PDP will average 3.9 per cent, compared with the previously forecast 4.5 per cent in the 2010 plan.

Chavalit said the forecast decline in electricity demand indicated that it would not be necessary to set up a great number of new power plants. Moreover, the power plants under the 2010 PDP will be asked to postpone their schedules to start supplying electricity to the system, so that the level of the power reserve will not exceed the statutory level.

He said one of the independent power producer (IPP) projects Eppo wanted to delay was that of Gulf Energy Development Co (Gulf JP) totalling 5,000MW. Under the 2010 PDP, the Gulf group was to supply 1,250MW per year to the system from 2021 to 2024.

However, negotiations with Gulf group will have to wait for the result of an examination by an Energy Ministry-appointed committee on whether the ministry has the authority to terminate the power purchase contract of Independent Power Development, the sole winner of two IPP contracts with capacity of 5 gigawatts. Independent Power Development is a joint venture of Gulf JP and Mitsui and Co (Thailand).

If the project is not terminated, the talks to ask Gulf JP to reschedule could begin, Chavalit said.

Late last year, Energy Ministry permanent secretary Areepong Bhoocha-oom reportedly received notification from the junta-sponsored committee examining state spending that the panel believed the tendering process lacked transparency. The auction was held by the Energy Regulatory Commission last year. The panel also asked the ministry to inform the bid winner that its contract with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand would be terminated.

After receiving the notification from the committee, Areepong set up the panel to examine whether the ministry could terminate the contract in such a way that the winner would have no right to sue the government for compensation.

Last month, the National Energy Policy Council endorsed a key principle of the 2015 PDP, which set the proportion of the electricity imports by the end of 2036 at 15-20 per cent, up from 10 per cent in the existing PDP. The share of the electricity supply from “clean coal” power plants is set at 20-25 per cent, up from 19 per cent, while that from renewable energy is set at 15-20 per cent, up from 8 per cent.

The share of electricity from natural gas is reduced to 30-40 per cent from 58 per cent in the existing PDP, from nuclear plants at 0-5 per cent, down from 5 per cent, and for diesel or bunker oil at 1 per cent. The PDP did not mention diesel.