THAILAND’s Energy Ministry said the country is unlikely to face electricity shortages such as those being experienced in Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
In trying to allay fears that the problem faced by the two countries could spread to Thailand as well, the ministry said Thailand has secured a long-term coal purchasing contract to guarantee coal supplies.
It was recently reported that the state-run Vietnam Electricity warned of electricity shortages due to tight coal supplies while Sri Lanka has started power cuts amid fuel supply shortages.
Energy Ministry spokesman Sompop Pattanariyankool urged Thais to use energy sparingly as prices for imports, such as natural gas, were rising steadily.
According to a Bangkok Post report, the ministry hopes this will help ration energy stocks although he said Thailand still had high energy security.
It is unclear where Thailand will be getting its coal supply from but a Greenpeace report had said that Indonesia, Australia and Russia exported the largest amounts of coal to Thailand in 2019.
According to him, Witoon Permpongsacharoen, director of the Mekong Energy Ecology Network, said Thailand may be spared of an energy crisis due to how it purchases and reserves power.
Witoon said Vietnam and Sri Lanka have adopted the “Entrance Centre Buyer” energy management system.
However, the system will pose problems for some countries as it lacks the flexibility required for dealing with a changing energy situation.
He said the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) relies 5 to 6 per cent on hydropower energy, 10 to 18 per cent on lignite energy and more than 60 per cent on natural gas.
“And because [our] hydropower energy is imported from Laos, drought won’t affect our hydropower supplies.
“Our problem will instead be overwhelming debt [incurred from long-term energy purchasing contracts] that we will be dealing with a long time from now,” he said.
Despite Thailand’s huge debt, he said the country had not stopped signing new contracts as its economic system was still capable of coping with the situation.
He added that Egat had now shifted the burden of energy costs to consumers.
Witoon said that unlike Thailand, Sri Lanka does not have sufficient foreign reserves to buy natural gas and generate electricity when having hydropower generation problems.
Sri Lanka has also become debt-strapped after it borrowed funds from China under the Belt and Road Initiative, he said.
He said Egat had signed energy purchasing contracts lasting no less than 20 years, and this was blocking efforts towards creating renewable energy.
“A shortage of electricity won’t happen but an oversupply will,” Witoon said, adding that this will result in more costs.
Unlike Vietnam which has built many coal-fired power plants over the last decade, he said Thailand relied far less on electricity generated by coal.
Vietnam had initially planned to equally rely on nuclear and coal-fired power plants.
However, as the nuclear plans did not proceed as expected, the country turned toward coal-powered plants.
Vietnam used to be a coal-exporting country but now it now importing coal to supply its many power plants, he said.
Meanwhile, Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) secretary-general Khomgrich Tantravanich said Thailand will have a higher power tariff starting May.
He said the move comes as natural gas production from the gas fields in the Gulf of Thailand have decreased and the country now imports the more expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The National Energy Policy Council said Thailand plans to import 4.5 million tonnes of LNG this year.
LNG prices in the spot market are about two times higher than the prices of gas in the Gulf of Thailand.
LNG gas prices have risen in tandem with a rise in global oil prices, which began last year when many countries eased their Covid-19 lockdown measures and resumed economic activities.
Prices have risen even further due to the Russia – Ukraine conflict.
Khomgrich said the ERC was working to prevent an electricity shortage by using cheaper fuels to produce electricity to offset the increase in fuel tariffs.
Among the plans is to buy 400 megawatts of electricity from biomass power plants.
Source: New Straits Times
