Smart grids expected to herald winds of change in energy development
A seminar on Wednesday (October 30) entitled “Smart Grid for the Future City”, educated people about the concept of smart power grids, which will support the electric power industry’s development, and help implement Thailand’s effective electricity generation plan.
The director-general of the Energy Policy and Planning Office (EPPO) under the Ministry of Energy, Wattanapong Kurowat, said the aim was to produce more electricity while using less resources.
“In the future, renewable energy will be used to generate mainstream electricity in Thailand through development of the smart grid,” he explained. “Besides, the Ministry of Energy has prepared a master plan for developing a smart grid network system between 2015 to 2036, aiming to push technology to be an important mechanism for creating a stable and sufficient electrical network system.”
This master plan was approved by the EPPO and the Cabinet in March, 2015. “It covers the overall smart grid development policy and structure in Thailand,” Wattanapong said. “It will allow the government agencies namely, Egat [Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand], PEA [Provincial Electricity Authority], and MEA [Metropolitan Electricity Authority], and relevant private sector to shape their direction of project development and future investment to meet the national policy and structure.”
“Moreover, the government aims to create a smart system, smart life and green society” said Wattanapong. “The first one will help reduce the backup power plant, power outage and electrical loss within the distribution system; smart life means modernisation and facilitation of people’s daily lives by future power technology; as for green society, we plan to increase the proportion of renewable energy in the electricity generating system by 15 per cent, and also aim to develop the micro grid system for stable power development in the local community.”