Gulf Energy may need financial incentive to delay new power supply

Kraisri Kanasuta, a member of the ERC, said yesterday that the commission had asked independent power producers (IPPs), especially Gulf, to postpone their schedules to supply power to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat).

The original schedule was to deliver 1.25 gigawatts per year from 2021-24. 

Gulf told the ERC that it would discuss the request with its business partners first.

Some IPPs have already agreed to cooperate without any need for compensation. 

National Power Supply, which has the capacity of 540 megawatts, will put off the start of its two plants by four years from the original schedules of 2016 and 2017. 

Gulf with will have a capacity of 5GW. The first three 1.25GW plants out of a total of four will start supplying power in 2021, 2022 and 2023. 

The ERC will hold talks with Egat on Thursday and ask the state enterprise to discuss the matter with Gulf. 

According to the Power Development Plan (2015-36), demand is tending to decline because of the expected slowing economy. The inclusion of an energy-saving plan also means the power reserve is expected to grow higher than the statutory 15 per cent of total power. 

The power reserve this year is forecast to exceed 25 per cent of the installed power system and peak at 40-42 per cent from 2023-25 before declining to 20 per cent in 2026. 

If the government declines to take any action to reduce this forecast high reserve, the electricity price is expected to zoom to Bt5.66 per unit at the end of 2036 from the current Bt3.86 per unit. 

Suthon Boonprasong, Egat’s deputy governor for transmission systems, said that if Egat has to offer an incentive to Gulf, it would need an ERC resolution authorising the state enterprise to talk with Gulf on the matter. 

The results from the talks with Gulf also need approval from the National Energy Policy Council for implementation.