Quick Win community power plant projects to be approved this month

By THE NATION

The Ministry of Energy expects to approve Quick Win community power plant projects under 100 megawatts capacity within March, ministry permanent secretary Kulit Sombatsiri said on Friday (March 13).

“We estimate that the project would generate income of around Bt100 million for the grass-roots economy per megawatt produced,” he added.

“In the upcoming weeks, the Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency will organise public hearings to gather suggestions from related communities and use them to improve criteria for selection of power plant operators.”

The date and venue of public hearings is not decided yet, as currently the Covid-19 situation is hindering the organisation of public events, added Kulit.

“The Quick Win community power plant project is scheduled to have COD [commercial operation date] within 2020, meaning the power plants are supposed to start distributing electricity into the power grid within this year,” said Kulit. “However, the Ministry of Energy is aware of the problem regarding delayed imports of necessary machines and equipment due to the Covid-19 outbreak, which could result in power plant operators missing their COD deadline. We will consider postponing the deadline to mid-2021 on a case by case basis, depending on the outbreak situation in the future.”

The Ministry of Energy’s community power plant project is divided into three phases: The first phase will cover pilot power plants operated by state enterprises with combined capacity of 8MW. The second phase will cover power plants operated by private contractors selected on Quick Win basis with combined capacity of 100MW and original COD schedule within 2020. The last phase will cover newly constructed power plants with combined capacity of 600MW and original COD schedule within 2021.

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30384078