Ministry eyes suspension of A18 gas block

Though the period of this annual maintenance is only five days compared to 25 days last year, the ministry still wants the related parties to be alert for any incidents. It also asked all related agencies to seek collaboration from people and the industrial and tourism sectors in the 14 provinces in the South to consume less electricity during the period.
Electricity demand in the South is expected to peak from 6.30pm to 10.30pm. Energy Minister Narongchai Akrasanee and the ministry’s officials will also visit the Chana power plant in Songkhla on July 18 to see its readiness to deal with any situation.
Ministry deputy permanent secretary Twarath Sutabutr said the ministry would have to stay alert like last year as the maintenance shutdown this year would see natural gas supplies in the system decline by 420 million cubic feet per day. This would prompt unit 2 of the Chana plant, which has a capacity of 800 megawatts, to suspend production, as it is solely dependent on gas supply from the JDA.
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand’s deputy governor for transmission, Suthon Boonprasong, said Egat is ready to run unit 1 of the Chana plant with diesel to compensate for the lost capacity of the unit 2.
The state agency has just finished upgrading unit 1 to be able to run on either gas or oil. Egat is also ready to purchase electricity from Malaysia in the case of an emergency.