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The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand’s five-year plan to invest Bt400 billion-Bt500 billion in new power transmission lines and power plants to ensure stability of the nation’s power supply will likely limit its profit contribution to the Finance Ministry at Bt5 billion-Bt6 billion annually, governor Soonchai Kumnoonsate said yesterday.

This is compared with the usual 45 per cent of profits, or about Bt20 billion a year, despite the request from the ministry for Egat to help bridge the shortfall in state revenue due to the continuing sluggishness of the economy.

Meanwhile, Egat announced yesterday that the 18-day shutdown of two gas fields in Myanmar had not affected power-generating activities in Thailand.

Solar Energy expands

Thai Solar Energy will invest Bt10 billion to expand its power-production capacity by 150 megawatts within the country and abroad, on expectation of 30-per-cent growth in its income to Bt1.1 billion this year.

Chief executive officer Catherine Maleenont said 100MW would be produced domestically after a Bt5-billion investment, and 50MW would be generated in Japan following a similar outlay.

Planned production is expected to be nearly totally distributed at the end of next year, she said.

“In 2016, the company will have a production capacity of about 250MW. The current capacity is 98.5MW,” she said.

Of the Bt10-billion investment, about Bt7.5 billion will come from borrowings and the remainder from the listed company’s capital.

‘Magic bullet’ effect

Santitam Sathirathai, an analyst at Credit Suisse, reiterated in economic research released yesterday that the effect of the government’s multi-year infrastructure plans – seen in some quarters as the ‘magic bullet’ that could benefit the economy in both the short term and the long term – was likely exaggerated by many observers.

He said in the research that Credit Suisse had cut its forecast for 2015 growth in Thai gross domestic product to 3.1 per cent from 3.7 per cent earlier, reflecting a weaker outlook for fiscal spending as well as exports.