Thailand
Thailand: Energy experts seek electricity trade reform
Energy experts have called on the government to reform electricity trading, allowing power firms to compete with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) in order to reduce power bills for households and solve the oversupply of national power reserve.
Egat has monopolised the market for 50 years, being a single buyer that sells electricity to the public under the enhanced single buyer (ESB) model. Private power producers are only allowed to sell electricity to the industrial sector.
“The government should allow companies to be power buyers like Egat,” said Piyasvasti Amranand, head of Energy Reform for Sustainability (ERS), which made the proposal yesterday.
ERS is made up of energy experts from state agencies and private companies.
Mr Piyasvasti said power generation capacity reserve in Thailand now almost reaches 50% of total capacity, much higher than the international standard of 15-20%.
Total capacity as of September was 45,477 megawatts. Power demand peaked in March, with consumption of 28,636MW.
Mr Piyasvasti said the more power reserve is, the more tariff is charged in power bills.
Currently power purchase by Egat is based on power purchase agreement (PPA) which lasts up to 25 years. Electricity rate is calculated for the whole period, which is known as “availability payment” (AP), though the actual usage may be less than the agreed time frame.
AP is the base tariff for monthly power bills.
Real demand for electricity each year has been lower than the state’s estimation over the past decade.
This is why many people have doubts about their electricity bills in April which remained unchanged despite the decrease in global oil prices.
“The PPA should be reduced to 5-7 years,” said Mr Piyasvasti.
Power companies should be allowed to bid for concessions to be power buyers so that they can sell electricity to households. This will induce competition in the market, resulting in lower power bills.
Mr Piyasvasti said Thailand lags behind other countries which have already reformed electricity rates to promote competition and prepare for the prosumer model.
Without a change, he warned, Thailand will lose its competitiveness in energy cost management.
ERS also suggested authorities consider delaying new power plant development by Egat and private companies in order to curb the supply of electricity.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2010103/energy-experts-seek-electricity-trade-reform