Power Development plan 24 plants by 2015 Egat
proposal
to cost BT40 billion a year
The Nation, Tuesday, 4 May, 2004
Watcharapong Thongrung
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) will today propose a new power development plan (PDP) for 2004-2015, which involves an annual investment of around Bt40 billion to build 24 new power plants, Egat officials said.
The proposal will be submitted to the board today for approval.
The country's domestic power demand is expected to reach 40,978 megawatts in 2015, with an annual growth of 6 per cent to 7 per cent, from the current level of around 19,300 MW, said Narongsak Vichetpan, acting Egat governor.
Of the total new power plants, Egat expects to build at least half of them for the security of the power supply system, Narongsak said. Egat runs Thailand 's electricity grid and owns 59 per cent of the country's 25,647 MW generating capacity.
Among the new power plants, Egat plans to build four: the North Bangkok Power Plant (800 MW), South Bangkok Power Plant (700 MW), Bangpakong Power Plant (800 MW) and Songkhla Power Plant (700 MW) in Chana district of that southern province. The plants, with a combined power-generating capacity of 3,000 MW, are targeted to start operations around 2008-2009, said Narongsak.
If the Songkhla Power Plant is opposed by the local community, Egat may build another power-generating unit at the North Bangkok Power Plant, said Silchai Thirawat, Egat's deputy governor.
All four plants will run on natural gas. Narongsak said the new PDP cuts the power-reserve requirement to 15 per cent from the 20-25 per cent Egat had used in its previous plans, helping into save some investment money.
"The lowest reserve year is 2006, for which the power reserve is expected at 13 per cent. Our task is to keep maintenance of the power plants well during the summer," he said.
Egat will compete with private companies to win the right to build 20 other new plants, which Silchai said will use gas, coal and hydropower as fuel. They will require a total investment of Bt612.7 billion if all use coal but Bt446.2 billion if all use gas, he said.
Narongsak said if the government could not provide a guarantee on its new power-plant investments Egat would still be able to borrow loans on its own because the projects have "assured returns and customers".
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