Bid for stake in coal-fired power plants

Gawin Thungsupanich, secretary-general of the ERC, said yesterday that the electricity tariff will be revised and proposed to the energy minister this month. Then private investors will receive a subsidy from the Electricity Development Fund to ensure a reasonable return on investment, he said.
The ERA promotes investment in power plants so that every household nationwide can enjoy access to electricity.
The PEA has been laying power transmission lines to remote areas to serve 98 per cent of electricity users nationwide with about Bt13 billion per year in support from the Electricity Development Fund, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and the Metropolitan Electricity Authority.
It is not economically viable to undertake the project alone and still 2 per cent of households in remote areas have to live without access to electricity, such as villages and resorts on faraway islands.
The tariff will be revised every three to five years according to the changing operating environment and approved by the Energy Ministry and the National Energy Policy Office.
The next tariff adjustment will not only draw private IPPs to serve rural areas, but also to improve in terms of actual cost of each IPP in producing power and to reduce the Bt38 service fee in each monthly bill for consumers.
The Power Development Plan (PDP) 2013 will propose a reduction in the proportion of natural gas-fuelled power plants from 66.97 per cent to 40 per cent if possible in the next 17 years. Coal and nuclear power plants will play a greater role in the future. Electricity generation in Thailand depends 71.93 per cent on natural gas, which is too high.
The ERC is looking ahead to the next IPP bidding for only coal power plants if this concept is approved by the Energy Ministry, which must include and specify it in the next PDP before new bidding for coal-driven power plants can be held, he added.