Two NRC members urge breaking utilities' stranglehold on energy
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An energy-reform activist and a solar-power promoter, both members of the National Reform Council (NRC), yesterday suggested that the public should be allowed to take a more active role in the governance and production of energy.
Activist Rosana Tositrakul told the NRC that considering the value of the oil trade – about Bt500 billion a year – the public should have access to information on the incomes and expenses of relevant state agencies, including individuals and nominees, not just corporate entities.
She also urged policy-makers to give more importance to renewable energy, which currently accounts for a very small share of total energy production in the country. Small players, including individuals, should be allowed to take part in electricity production. For example, 98.7 per cent of the country’s solar power currently comes from big producers, while rooftop solar power represents just 1.2 per cent, Rosana said.
“Citizens are obstructed through a quota system and by the excuse of electricity security. Reducing inequality is not just about politics, it’s also about economics. I’m confident that democracy will come not only through the distribution of political power, but also through the distribution of economic power to small individuals.”
Rosana reiterated her stance that national energy security should not be in the hands of the private sector, which has to make efficiency and profitability its priorities, and thus a national energy company wholly owned by the state should be established.
Dusit Kruangam, a promoter of solar-energy and an NRC member, said that since Thailand’s petroleum resources were depleting, the only way to survive was to make better use of indigenous energy sources such as the sun and biomass.
He said the current “single buyer” system, which gives monopolistic power to state-owned utilities in procuring electricity, should be abolished.
“The buyers and sellers of energy should be every citizen of the country,” Dusit said. He pointed to Germany, which is encouraging households to install solar cells on their rooftops to produce electricity for their own use and to sell to the national grid.
He urged the authorities to get rid of all rules and procedures that obstruct citizens from producing energy, including not only renewable sources such as solar, but also fuels such as gasohol and biodiesel.
