Energy Minister Pongsak Ruktapongpisal has given
the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) the green light
to proceed with a plan to build coal-powered plants in Myanmar and
Cambodia - providing Thailand with 10,000 megawatts of electricity. Egat
has also been instructed to negotiate the purchase of nuclear power
from China in order to bring down the cost of electricity.
At present, households pay independent power producers (IPP) who rely on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) to operate. According to Pongsak, Egat is
in the middle of negotiations with the Myanmar government to invest in
coal-powered plants, which would provide Thailand with between 4,000MW
to 6,000MW - produced by a plant in Dawei - and another 2,000MW via the
natural-gas pipeline. The issue will be raised with the Myanmar
vice-president when he visits Thailand from May 26-28 to pave the way
for the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the deal.
In
addition, the Energy Ministry has also been discussing the possibility
of investing in a coal-powered plant in Cambodia to produce 4,000MW of
electricity. Thailand hopes that buying power from Cambodia will keep
the domestic cost of electricity from exceeding Bt6 per unit. Egat also
plans to go ahead with its coal-powered project in Krabi once it has
reached an "understanding" with residents and businesses protesting
against the deal.
The
minister said that in Thailand power plants were far too dependent on
liquefied natural gas (LNG). Since supply from the Gulf of Thailand is
dwindling, it was necessary for the foreseen future to rely on cheaper,
imported LNG from the region. Furthermore, the next IPP bidding for
5,400MW of electricity would likely increase the cost of electricity for
the general public. Since the bidding cannot be cancelled, the energy
ministry has to secure other lower-cost sources of electricity, said the
minister.
In addition to investing in coal-operated power plants from neighbouring countries, Egat is also looking at investing in hydro-electric power projects within the region.
The
energy ministry is also trying to secure a power purchase deal with a
Chinese nuclear power plant. The concept of nuclear power has yet to be
widely accepted in Thailand.
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