Energy regulator to urge postponement of new

Without such postponements and the introduction of other measures, the country’s power reserves will rise from 25 per cent at present and peak at about 41-42 per cent in 2023-2024, and the nationwide power tariffs will steadily go up to Bt5.66 per kilowatt-hour by 2036, he said.
That would be 46 per cent higher than the current electricity tariffs of Bt3.86 per kilowatt-hour.
Kraisri told a press conference yesterday that the ERC had asked Egat to consider delaying power projects, noting that it could do so without undermining power-supply security. These would include the second phase of the coal-fired project in Tepa, Songkhla, the Bang Pakong power plant’s second phase, and the Wang Noi project in the Central region.
The South Bangkok and Krabi power projects, however, cannot be delayed since electricity-supply security would be compromised, he said.
The ERC will also formally request that Egat ask private power producers voluntarily to delay their projects, especially for those plants that are unlikely to meet their project schedules. But the authorities cannot force the private power developers that have already signed power-purchase agreements with Egat to change their time frames, he said.
In the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the country witnessed a decline in electricity demand, but no private power producers agreed to postpone their projects, recalled Kraisri, a former Egat governor.
“We must try to negotiate with power producers, especially Egat, to postpone commissioning plant projects, which will be beneficial to power consumers,” he said.
The country will need no additional power plants than those already laid out in the plan for 10 years, he said.
In the more immediate term, electricity tariffs are projected to be reduced at the next two reviews this year, thanks to the falling prices of natural gas, which fuels 70 per cent of the country’s power plants, said another ERC commissioner and spokesman, Viraphol Jirapraditkul.
Commenting on the request for an extension of power-purchase contracts from small power producers (SPPs), Viraphol said the ERC and the government had agreed that the country would still need co-generation plants in the industrial estates to ensure the continued supply of electricity and steam for factories in the estates. But authorities will have to negotiate for SPPs to lower their power tariffs and reduce sales of their power to the national grid.
He said the ERC was also finalising the base electricity tariff for use during the next three years. Thailand has two-part electricity tariff system, comprising the base rate, which is reviewed every three years, and the fuel adjustment tariff (Ft), which is revised every four months.