Wants to promote solar panels at home
The Thailand Consumers Council (TCC) is urging the government to consider lowering the fuel tariff (Ft) amid mounting complaints about high electricity bills, adding that the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) must promote the use of solar panels at home to help address the problem.
Itthaboon: ‘Govt must review contracts’
At a seminar discussing recent increases in power costs, TCC deputy secretary Itthaboon Onwongsa said the way Thailand generates its electricity is partly to blame for the recent spikes observed by households and industries.
He noted that the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), despite its name, only produces about 34-35% of the electricity used in the country.
The rest, he noted, has to be purchased from various private companies, which Egat would then re-sell to the Metropolitan Electricity Authority and Provincial Electricity Authority.
“The government must review its contracts with private companies, and in the meantime, it should call off the construction of new private power plants,” said Mr Itthaboon.
Prasat Meetam, a president of the Sub-Committee for Public Services, Energy and Environment, pointed out that Thailand reviews the Ft rate once every four months, while Malaysia does so every month.
“The power cost for a 500 kilowatt-hour [unit] in Thailand is 2,638 baht while in Malaysia it is only around 1,292 baht,” he said.
The TCC also called on the government to take immediate action to reduce power bills.
It said the Office of the Energy Regulatory Commission should base its Ft rate calculation on actual usage instead of forecast usage.
The Ministry of Energy should also restructure the price of gas used for electricity generation in the country, by including the amount of gas supplied to Gas Separation Plants (GSPs) and the petrochemical industry, according to the TCC, which claimed doing so could bring down the rate to 0.23-0.25 baht per unit, saving around 40-50 billion baht per year.
The TCC also suggested the Energy Ministry order PTT Plc to subsidise Egat’s natural gas supply using revenues from the GSPs.
The ERC should promote solar panels at home and urge users to enable “net metering”, a tool which “stores” the excess energy produced.
Chalie Charoenlarpnopparut, a member of the Sub-Committee for Public Services, Energy and Environment, said electricity overproduction in Thailand stems from the Loss of Load Expectation (LOLE).
The standard LOLE is 24 hours per year, but Thailand’s rate is 16.8 hours per year.
Mr Chalie said the public still has to pay to maintain power plants, even when they are not operational. Between January and April, 6.1 billion baht was paid to maintain two suspended power plants.
