'Not a reason to build plants'

An academic yesterday warned the government against trying to use the recent power blackout in the South as an excuse to push ahead with the construction of more power plants.
Several current power-plant projects face opposition from locals.
“Various agencies have now given conflicting information, especially in regard to power demand in the South,” Asst Prof Prasart Meetam said.
He teaches at the Faculty of Sciences at Prince of Songkla University.
He suspects that many officials were now trying to claim that a new power plant was very much needed to prevent such blackouts from striking in the future.
“No matter what caused the power blackout in 14 southern provinces on Tuesday, it is clear that energy management in the country is flawed,” Prasart said.
He insisted that the southern region already had an adequate power supply.
“We have more than enough,” the academic insisted.
According to Prasart, the peak power demand levels in the South are in fact still significantly lower than the region’s power-generation capacity.
He also pointed out that Songkhla, in particular, should have not suffered a power blackout at all.
Prasart said he believed it was time for relevant authorities to review their energy policies.
“End the monopoly and decentralise energy security,” he said.
A lecturer at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkra-bang, Dusit Suksawat, also expressed scepticism at the explanations provided by the government and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand that the blackouts, which lasted several hours, were caused solely by malfunctions at a power plant in Chom Bung district in Ratchaburi.
He said power distribution systems generally activate automatic supply of power within seconds or minutes of an electrical short circuit occurring.
The power grid is served by power running from alternate sources once a blackout or short circuit occurs, he said.
Dusit said he doubted an organisation like Egat would allow a situation to occur in which no back-up plans are put in place in case of an outage or short circuit, as it shouldered the awesome responsibility of energy security at the national level.
However, Koh Samui Tourism Promotion Association president Tanongsak Somwong complained that power blackouts hit his zone often. On Tuesday, the power went out in most parts of Koh Samui for about five hours.
“Only large tourism operators have their own power generators,” Tanongsak said.
He criticised the government for failing to prevent the power failure. “I don’t think the incident has anything to do with high power consumption. I think it’s more about the carelessness of the government,” he said.
Located in Surat Thani, Koh Samui is a tropical paradise that attracts a huge number of tourists each year.
Although Tanongsak is concerned about the power failure, he is totally against the construction of nuclear or coal-driven power plants.
“It’s best to get renewable energy. Thailand is rich with natural resources that are clearly safer than coal and nuclear,” Tanongsai said.