Thailand tops 2014 Asean Energy Awards
Thailand remains the Asean Champion at the Asean Energy Awards 2014 after receiving 13 honoured awards as it confidently steps forward into the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015.
Thailand's Minister of Energy Narongchai Akrasanee revealed that, this year amongst 10 Asean countries, Thailand won the largest number of awards with 13 awardees out of a total of 45 at the Asean Energy Awards 2014.
The awards ceremony was held in Vientiane, when Minister of Energy, Narongchai attended the 32nd Asean Minister on Energy meeting (AMEM) yesterday. Thailand's awardees are also divided into seven winners, including the two 1st runners-up and four 2nd runners-up.
Narongchai told the media that 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 AEC integration in the near future," he said.
During the 32nd Asean Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM) and Related Meetings in Vientiane from September 22-24, Narongchai told media representatives that the Thai and Lao energy ministers also met to discuss future power purchasing deals between Laos and Thailand.
"Thailand signed an MOU with Laos on buying energy from Laos totalling 7,000 MW. So far 1,800 MW is on the grid and it will reach 5,400 MW in the next four years," he said.
The Renewable Energy Project Competition and Energy Conservation Project Competition were the two main competitive topics for the Asean Energy Awards 2014.
Narongchai went on to say that "Several mega dam projects and Hongsa Lignite 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 the energy integration in the region in an effort to cooperate with each other in the field of production and distribution.
Narongchai added that Thailand signed bilateral cooperation agreements in the energy sector with neigbouring 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.
APG aims to connect countries with surplus power generation capacity to those who face a deficit or energy issues.
"Thailand has a clear policy to steadily support the Lao government towards future energy development," he said, adding that Asean power integration is a significant scheme to connect between the Asean members.
