Renewable energy should be focus of new power plan: expert

[webfact]

Renewable energy should be focus of new power plan: expert

By PRATCH RUJIVANAROM 
THE NATION

 

 

EXPERTS ARE urging Thai authorities to change their mindset about power development and to be more in step with global trends by prioritising renewable energy. Adopting a new approach would solve current problems, such as the current excessive electricity reserve margin and greenhouse gas emissions from the reliance on fossil-fuel energy.
 

Adopting a new approach would solve current problems, such as the current excessive electricity reserve margin and greenhouse gas emissions from the reliance on fossil-fuel energy.

 

The country’s latest Power Development Plan (PDP) is now being drafted and should be finalised within September. Experts and some citizens have said the power reserve margin is now too high and has led to increased household and business power bills.

 

They object to plans to build yet more power plants despite a decreasing trend-line in power consumption and the existence of power purchase agreements with neighbouring countries .

 

Supakit Nantaworakan, an environment and health expert, noted the current electricity generation capacity of Thailand is as high as 42,000 megawatts even though the peak power demand is around 29,000MW. That puts Thailand’s reserve margin as high as 55 per cent, far beyond the internationally accepted ideal reserve margin level at 15 per cent of peak demand.

 

“A too-high reserve margin is creating an unnecessary expense for the country and the people. We have to pay an ‘availability payment’ for excessive power production that we do not use, and that makes our power bills more expensive,” Supakit said.

 

“Based on the calculation of the availability payment made to maintain this very high reserve margin, we have over-invested up to Bt200 billion to Bt300 billion on the generation of electricity that we do not need. If we maintain the reserve margin at the appropriate level of 15 per cent, we can save a large amount of money and significantly lower people’s electricity bills.”

 

 

Instead of building even more large fossil-fuel power plants, the government should promote increased investment in small localised renewable energy power plants, said Supakit. Those small-scale solutions have been proven to be environmentally less harmful, and a series of small-scale projects can entirely replace large fossil-fuel power plants, he said.

 

“By switching to small renewable energy, we can better manage the power generated in the system and control the level of reserve margin than we can with large fossil-fuel power plants. That’s because small, renewable energy plants are more flexible to turn on and off to maintain a proper level of reserve margin in the electricity system,” Supakit explained.

 

“Therefore, I urge that the new PDP focus on renewable energy promotion, especially among the private sector, such as solar rooftops and on purchasing unlimited electricity from renewable energy based on price.”

 

He added that Thailand could rely solely on renewable energy for its needs. It is not true that the country requires a high reserve margin from base-load power plants to sustain renewable energy, Supakit insisted.

 

The new PDP will seek the cheapest sources of power, said Energy Policy and Planning Office director-general Twarath Sutabutr. The new plan will focus on cost-based electricity, choosing electricity from the cheapest sources to supply power to the system first. The Electricity Generation Authority of Thailand (Egat) will have to compete with the private power producers, he said.

 

“Every kind of fuel or source of power will be calculated and put into the same basket, with the cheapest source of power chosen first” in order to ensure that the cost of electricity generation will be the lowest possible, Twarath said.

 

Nevertheless, power stability is another major concern in the new PDP plan, he said, with Egat obliged to invest and run power plant projects to maintain the stability of power supply in each region of the country.

 

Twarath noted that the Energy Ministry had already acknowledged the problem of a too-high reserve margin, which stemmed from inaccurate power demand predictions in the previous PDP plan.

 

“We admit that there are many factors that contribute to the change in power demand of the country. For example, more advanced power saving and power generation technologies allow more power users to reduce their consumption and generate power themselves,” Twarath said.

 

“We are trying to solve this problem by coming out with more accurate methods to predict power demand for the new PDP plan.”

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30348517

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-06-25

[nobodysfriend]

“Every kind of fuel or source of power will be calculated and put into the same basket, with the cheapest source of power chosen first”

 

 

If one adds the price to repair the damage done to the environment by coal burning power plants to the price of the " cheap " electricity produced by them , it turns out to be one of the most expensive , ( and polluting ) , forms of producing energy .

Renewable energy is the way to go , burning fossile fuels does too much damage .

 

Thais can learn from the mistakes done by other countries ...

Edited June 25, 2018 by nobodysfriend

[Anak Nakal]

Thailand have sun. 

LOT of sun.

Use solar.

DUH!!!

[Cadbury]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Supakit, an environment and health expert, noted the current electricity generation capacity of Thailand is as high as 42,000 megawatts even though the peak power demand is around 29,000MW. That puts Thailand’s reserve margin as high as 55 per cent, far beyond the internationally accepted ideal reserve margin level at 15 per cent of peak demand.

Something doesn't ring true here. If Thailand can produce 42,000 MW and has a reserve of 13,000MW then why does it purchase power from Chinese built power stations in Laos? 

Recent headline:

"Thailand has increased its purchase of electricity from 7,000 to 9,000 megawatts from Laos this year to ensure sufficient supply and meet rising demand".

Does that now mean Thailand has a reserve of 22,000MW? 

Or is it perhaps the Laos deal is to meet demand at times when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow. 

Another recent headline:

"Power relay failure from Laos causes outage in Bangkok".

Being just a punter perhaps I am missing something. I now await the experts to make their comments. 

Edited June 25, 2018 by Cadbury

[fxe1200]

Promoting, develop and the use of renewable energies will lead to decentralize the power production, thus hurting the profits of the big companies using gas, oil and coal to produce electricity. It may also effect the contributions towards politicians by these companies. Under "normal" conditions Thailands coastlines should be covered with wind and wave generators, the mainland would be using thermo-solar and photo-voltaic sources. The power of the sun is here, Thailand only has to use it.

[BEVUP]

Well they better drop the tariffs off Solar Panels then

 

Auss is doing this now & at $500 mill a pop per set up they will probably need a 100 or so ( don't know figures but alot being done along with wind farms )

[upu2]

3 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

“Every kind of fuel or source of power will be calculated and put into the same basket, with the cheapest source of power chosen first”

 

 

If one adds the price to repair the damage done to the environment by coal burning power plants to the price of the " cheap " electricity produced by them , it turns out to be one of the most expensive , ( and polluting ) , forms of producing energy .

Renewable energy is the way to go , burning fossile fuels does too much damage .

 

Thais can learn from the mistakes done by other countries ...

You have made a fundamental mistake in your post. You are assuming anyone cares about the environment........they dont

[leeneeds]

No brainer, this subject is and how it is allowed to stumble along without clear definitive use of solar power and wind where possible, is just an injustice to the planet and to the planets users,

I have been using solar for 10 years put back into the grid what I do not use,( for  FREE, )

if I had to keep it that way I would not be happy but would move on and put it down to doing my bit for the planet, 

we have to give something back instead of taking all the time. 

No  one owns the sun , it is free, abundant amounts of it FREE ,

did you say FREE!

 

 

 

[trainman34014]

3 hours ago, Cadbury said:

Something doesn't ring true here. If Thailand can produce 42,000 MW and has a reserve of 13,000MW then why does it purchase power from Chinese built power stations in Laos? 

Recent headline:

"Thailand has increased its purchase of electricity from 7,000 to 9,000 megawatts from Laos this year to ensure sufficient supply and meet rising demand".

Does that now mean Thailand has a reserve of 22,000MW? 

Or is it perhaps the Laos deal is to meet demand at times when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow. 

Another recent headline:

"Power relay failure from Laos causes outage in Bangkok".

Being just a punter perhaps I am missing something. I now await the experts to make their comments. 

What you are missing is the size and weight of the Brown Envelopes being passed back from Laos to certain Thai's in high positions !

[sammieuk1]

Knitting the Chiang Mai air could be in the past in say 50 years. 

[Cadbury]

3 hours ago, fxe1200 said:

Promoting, develop and the use of renewable energies will lead to decentralize the power production, thus hurting the profits of the big companies using gas, oil and coal to produce electricity. It may also effect the contributions towards politicians by these companies. Under "normal" conditions Thailands coastlines should be covered with wind and wave generators, the mainland would be using thermo-solar and photo-voltaic sources. The power of the sun is here, Thailand only has to use it.

I have sad news for you folk who have unmovable belief in the vagaries of the sun and wind. 

That might be good enough for domestic residences but the PM's Eastern Economic Corridor will not run on pissant batteries powered by sunlight and fickle winds. Face up to it; you are looking down the barrel of a coal fired station, if he gets his way.

Anyway one more coal fired power station is not going to make a scrap of difference to the earth's atmosphere on top of the thousands that already exist in China and India. Not to mention the thousands that are under construction and on the drawing board. 

The best you can hope for is that his great EEC dream fails spectacularly like all his other grand ideas. If so, then Thailand can go back to being run on the much acclaimed self-sufficiency theory which will fit in nicely with wind and solar power.

[wirat69]

13 hours ago, webfact said:

Adopting a new approach would solve current problems, such as the current excessive electricity

Seems to be excessive use of adjective "current", which is unfortunate in the current article about electricity where the current current appears excessive to demand.... Watts the high powered doing? Are they fossilised? 

[jimmybkk]

I was at LCB Port a couple of weeks back and there was row upon row of wind turbine parts stacked up, waiting to be delivered to locations upcountry. One location I understand is a new wind farm in Chaiyaphum, and one of the companies involved I believe is GE. It must cause massive headaches getting these things delivered to their final destination - some of the turbine blades (one-piece) are over 60m long.

[rickudon]

Ah, the over supply of fossil fuel capacity goes a long way towards explaining the HOSTILE position of the PEA to solar power. They put extraordinary barriers in the way of setting up grid linked home solar systems. Afterall, no one who matters will make money from the power they produce and it would cut into the profits of those who own the big power stations.

 

Most problems with electricity black and brown outs are not due to lack of generation capacity, but inadequate grid infrastructure. And it is not just under developed countries who suffer, many developed ones also do, China and the USA have known problems.

[galt67]

10 hours ago, Anak Nakal said:

Thailand have sun. 

LOT of sun.

Use solar.

DUH!!!

Using 'solar' in Thailand is actually NOT ideal.

 

See attached.

 

Cloud/rain, the angle of the sun, etc., impact it's efficiency.

[Jaggg88]

8 hours ago, leeneeds said:

No brainer, this subject is and how it is allowed to stumble along without clear definitive use of solar power and wind where possible, is just an injustice to the planet and to the planets users,

I have been using solar for 10 years put back into the grid what I do not use,( for  FREE, )

if I had to keep it that way I would not be happy but would move on and put it down to doing my bit for the planet, 

we have to give something back instead of taking all the time. 

No  one owns the sun , it is free, abundant amounts of it FREE ,

did you say FREE!

 

 

 

Is this in Thailand? I thought you could only use batteries with solar panels here.