Thai electricity authority says drought will not affect power generation

• 9 years ago (2015-07-09)
• David Flin

North America 1021

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The Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) of Thailand has said that the public will continue to receive an uninterrupted supply of power despite the current water shortage, and that it has launched a power saving campaign ahead of the closure of a gas field.

Sermsakool Klaikaew, a Governor at PEA, said that the drought crisis being witnessed in many parts of Thailand will not have any impact on the agency’s generation of electricity. He said that the country mostly relies on natural gas for power production, and that hydropower only accounts for 5 per cent of capacity.

Meanwhile, ahead of the temporary closure of the Thailand-Malaysia Joint Development Area (JDA) gas field for maintenance during 19-23 July, Sermsakool said that the PEA has started the Demand Response campaign for power conservation in cooperation with the Energy Regulatory Commission. A target has been set to reduce energy usage by 100 MW. So far, 103 private companies have signed up for the project and, in return, they will be given a discount of 3.40 baht ($0.10) per unit. He said that additional participants to the scheme will be accepted until the day that gas delivery from the JDA is suspended.