THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Thailand tops 2014 Asean Energy Awards

Thailand tops 2014 Asean Energy Awards

Thailand remains the regional champion after receiving 13 Asean Energy Awards at this year's event.

Energy Minister Narongchai Akrasanee said that among the 10 Asean countries, Thailand won the largest number of awards, 13 out of the total of 45 on offer. 
The awards ceremony was held in Vientiane, where Narongchai attended the 32nd Asean Ministers of Energy Meeting (AMEM) this week. 
Thailand took seven top awards, two first-runner-up honours and four second-runner-ups.
Narongchai said these achievements would not have happened without strong cooperation between the private and public sectors.
“All the achievements indicate that Thailand is now still the leading country in energy conservation in Asean and will be ready to go forward towards Asean Economic Community integration in the near future,” he said.
The Renewable Energy Project Competition and Energy Conservation Project Competition provided the two main awards this year.
Narongchai told media representatives that during AMEM and related meetings in Vientiane from Monday to Wednesday, the Thai and Laotian energy ministers met to discuss future power-purchase deals between the two countries.
“Thailand signed a memorandum of understanding on buying energy from Laos totalling 7,000 megawatts. So far 1,800MW is on the grid, and it will reach 5,400MW in the next four years,” he said.
“Several dam mega-projects and the Hongsa Lignite project in Laos will be completed in the near future, and this electricity will be also purchased by Thailand.”
Asean countries are pushing forward to promote energy integration in an effort to cooperate with one another in the fields of production and distribution.
Narongchai said Thailand had signed bilateral cooperation agreements in the energy sector with neighbouring Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Malaysia.
Meanwhile Laos will also push for the acceleration of energy integration under the Asean Power Grid (APG) to address the imbalance in the distribution of power-generating resources in the region.
The APG aims to connect countries with surplus generation capacity to those facing a deficit or other energy issues. “Thailand has a clear policy to support the Laotian government steadily towards future energy development,” Narongchai said.
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