Thailand’s power usage reaches new high on May 6th due to hot weather

Thailand’s consumption of electricity surged to a new record high of 34,826.50 megawatts at 9.41pm on Saturday May 6th, breaking the previous record of 33,177.30 megawatts, set at 2.30pm on April 28th last year.

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) attributed the surge to the hot weather during the long holidays, from May 4th to 7th, forcing residential consumers to use their air conditioners, electric fans and refrigerators for longer.

The ERC has urged the public to conserve energy while checking their electricity bills issued in May, to find out how much electricity they used in April and whether it was unusually high, adding that there are two possible causes of higher bills, errors in the calculation or a rise in consumption due to the hot weather.

According to the ERC, a progressive power rate is applied, which means that the more power a household uses, the…