Electricity and fuel prices are expected to increase next year

[webfact]

 

Consumers are advised to brace for increases in the prices of electricity and fuel next year, even though the government will try its best to minimise the rises.

 

After the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) proposed an increase in the price of electricity, from 3.99 baht to 4.68 baht/unit for January-April, the Ministry of Energy is to hold consultations with the ERC on how to trim the fuel tariff (FT), averaging 89.55 satang/unit, to limit the proposed increase, which is considered by the government to be too large.

 

Energy Permanent Secretary Prasert Sinsukprasert said that the ministry envisions a reduction in dependence on natural gas in electricity generation and an increase in the use of renewable or clean energy sources. Renewable energy is, however, still expensive, so this could actually increase electricity prices.

 

Full story: Thai PBS 2023-12-04

 

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[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Consumers are advised to brace for increases in the prices of electricity and fuel next year, even though the government will try its best to minimise the rises.

More rises next year, what a huge surprise.

[jacko45k]

2 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

More rises next year, what a huge surprise.

Some inflationary pressures were deferred until next year!

[AhFarangJa]

26 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

More rises next year, what a huge surprise.

When the Wife stocked up her shop last month she was told beer had gone up, the following week or so Thai whiskey went up, and She was told then to expect another rise just before New Year. I guess like all Governments it is always slight of hand & misdirection. Put out news about power rates, while at the same time stealthily put a few satang on alcohol a few times.

[hotchilli]

10 minutes ago, AhFarangJa said:

When the Wife stocked up her shop last month she was told beer had gone up, the following week or so Thai whiskey went up, and She was told then to expect another rise just before New Year. I guess like all Governments it is always slight of hand & misdirection. Put out news about power rates, while at the same time stealthily put a few satang on alcohol a few times.

And next year when electricity prices rise again the extra will be passed onto the customer..  beer up again.

[sirineou]

The fuel , and as a consequence electricity prices have been kept artificially low in Thailand as anyone  who has traveled abroad will attest, 

I had the pleasure to spend  both in the US, Thailand and Greece, and Thailand has by far, the lowest energy prices  .  

As Thailand is beginning to experience budget shortfalls. It will have no choice than to limit or eliminate fuel subsidies. 

It is reasonable and inevitable. 

If there is a positive from it , it would be that it would make solar and EVs  more cost effective. 

[daveAustin]

Well what would one expect in bent, based-on-debt monetary system! Price rises are obligatory, albeit 16% ish on electric is gonna be tough to swallow for low earners. At least they don’t have it at the order of x2 or 3 like in our countries!

It happens in chunks because the powers that be haven’t got the taters to inch it up continually. 

[motdaeng]

8 minutes ago, daveAustin said:

 ... Price rises are obligatory, albeit 16% ish on electric is gonna be tough to swallow for low earners ...

 

you must see the whole thing in relation. an electricity price increase of about 16% means for low earners,

with a monthly electricity bill of 300 to 500 baht, additional costs of 48 to 80 baht per month!

btw, a lottery ticket costs 80 - 100 baht ... 

[BritManToo]

The answer is to use less electricity and fuel.

Get out of those SUVs and buy a Honda Click (50Km+ per litre).

Get your shopping delivered (MakroPro very easy, Lotus almost impossible for foreigners)

Turn off those Air-cons, get yourself some fans and solar panels.

Edited December 4, 2023 by BritManToo

[Cake Monster]

If there are price rises in Electricity and Fuel one thing will be certain

That is Companies will be looking to relocate their operations within SE Asia

In just the last 10 Days alone, I have heard their are 2 very large Enterprises i the Bowin area that are relocating to Vietnam

One at Years End and the other I dont know

These kind of Corporate decisions will only accelerate, causing massive damage to the Economy

[nausea]

Thailand has nothing on the UK, energy and food there are through the roof; I'm not really into this doom monger YouTuber Joe Blogs, but he did do a video recently which pretty much nails it.

[cracker1]

I am not sure why the Thai Government is not actively encouraging the installation of Solar Power in homes, businesses and public buildings.

[lahgon29]

6 hours ago, BritManToo said:

The answer is to use less electricity and fuel.

Get out of those SUVs and buy a Honda Click (50Km+ per litre).

Get your shopping delivered (MakroPro very easy, Lotus almost impossible for foreigners)

Turn off those Air-cons, get yourself some fans and solar panels.

No aircon in March, April and May, in Udon at night would be cruel.. What's the point in living here, for a better life, and melting through the night?

If people can't handle a few hundred baht rise, maybe they really shouldn't be here. 

 

Just an opinion

[BritManToo]

2 minutes ago, lahgon29 said:

No aircon in March, April and May, in Udon at night would be cruel.. What's the point in living here, for a better life, and melting through the night?

If people can't handle a few hundred baht rise, maybe they really shouldn't be here. 

 

Just an opinion

Fan is fine.

Last month electric bill= 160bht

[hotandsticky]

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Fan is fine.

Last month electric bill= 160bht

 

 

2,100 baht for me.   At this point I try to avoid saying "it's less than 50 Quid"

 

 

(+1,100 Baht for the Isaaan house).

[The Cyclist]

7 hours ago, sirineou said:

If there is a positive from it , it would be that it would make solar and EVs  more cost effective.

 

If people are complaining / worried about a 16% increase on a 400 baht monthly electric bill, I doubt that they will be in the market for an EV.

[sirineou]

4 hours ago, The Cyclist said:

 

If people are complaining / worried about a 16% increase on a 400 baht monthly electric bill, I doubt that they will be in the market for an EV.

Of course you are right about that, but you don't think the increases will stop at that 16%?  

   We just came back a few months ago having spend the Summer in Greece, everyone there was complaining about the high cost of electricity, and fuel was more than double from here. 

Much of the same was true in most European countries. 

  Me and the wife were talking about that, and she asked" Why was electric, a gas so expansive in Greece? don't they get gas from the same place we get it?"

My answer was  that they do get gas from the same place, but gas was subsidised in Thailand. 

Same thing is true of electric IMO 

    Energy is a big components of the means of production. and it reflects itself in everything we buy. 

 I read someplace that Thailand was experiencing a shortfall in their annual budget which was the main reason why they proposed to tax income from abroad. (  budget deficit of 693 billion baht,)

How much do you want to bet that that such deficits will affect  electric and fuel subsidies?

IMO this 16% increase in electric, is not an isolated incident and will continue , unless Thailand resolves,  it's deficit somewhere else. 

It's been a while , but if I remember my math right at 16% per year a bill will double in about 5 years!

   Do you think such scenario would make Solar cell and EVs more desirable? 

 

  ,  

[Digitalbanana]

5 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Fan is fine.

Last month electric bill= 160bht

I have a room I use one day a month with a fan and the MEA bill is 40THB for one day. Rest of month I disconnect the electric. Are MEA bills not the same as PEA bills, 160THB seems impossible to me?

[The Cyclist]

59 minutes ago, sirineou said:

It's been a while , but if I remember my math right at 16% per year a bill will double in about 5 years!

   Do you think such scenario would make Solar cell and EVs more desirable? 

 

A 400 baht monthly electric bill doubling to 800 Baht over the next 5 years is still not going to have the payers of 400 Baht monthly electric bills, potentially doubling to 800 baht over the next 5 years rushing out to buy an EV.

 

I doubt that they would have the cash, or be able to afford the monthly repayments.

 

No idea how much an EV costs ( apart from the 7 million Baht Mercedes I looked at in the showroom ) but taking on a Million Baht in debt because your electric might double from 400 baht a month to 800 baht a month over the next 5 years does not sound like a convincing argument to me, how that sounds to a Thai earning 25 - 35,000 Baht a month is up to them.

 

My November electric bill was 2700 Baht, doubling to 5400 is not going to make me rush out and buy a Mercedes EQS at 7 million Baht ( Lovely looking car though )

[ujayujay]

7 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Fan is fine.

Last month electric bill= 160bht

3 Aircon 900 THB last Month.......

[sirineou]

9 hours ago, The Cyclist said:

A 400 baht monthly electric bill doubling to 800 Baht over the next 5 years is still not going to have the payers of 400 Baht monthly electric bills, potentially doubling to 800 baht over the next 5 years rushing out to buy an EV.

Not sure why I am even bothering to write this reply, You did not understand any of the previous ones, so way would you understand this one? 

 

Why, a 400bht monthly electric bill? wouldn't a 200 bht electric bill make a better example of your ridiculous statement? 

You make a number of false presuppositions and you run with them.

   First, not all have a 400 bht electric bill . the  average electric bill in thailand is 743 Thai baht. 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1051505/thailand-average-monthly-electricity-consumption-per-household/#:~:text=Average monthly electricity consumption value per household Thailand 2012-2021&text=In 2021%2C the value of,around 2.23 thousand Thai baht.

That is the average!! many have a bill a lot higher. Run a poll on this forum and you will see that most expats pay over 2,000 bht per month. ( "My November electric bill was 2700 Baht, " )

  Second, no where did I say that anyone will "Rush" out to buy an EV . I said "more desirable "

Third. no where did I say that any increase in electric will induce people to buy an EV . I said " increase in energy" such  increase includes all forms in energy , which is why I mentioned the discrepancy if gas prices between Thailand and European countries. 

 

An Increase if fuel prices would make EVs more desirable.An Increase of the cost of charging them would make them more undesirable .An Increase in the electric bill would make Solar cell more desirable since the break even time period will decrease. 

 

 

 

 

[The Cyclist]

5 hours ago, sirineou said:

Second, no where did I say that anyone will "Rush" out to buy an EV . I said "more desirable "

 

5 hours ago, sirineou said:

An Increase if fuel prices would make EVs more desirable.An Increase of the cost of charging them would make them more undesirable .An Increase in the electric bill would make Solar cell more desirable since the break even time period will decrease. 

 

That logic is straight out of the consumerism management handbook. 

 

Not sure how to make this clear.

 

An increase in electric and fuel prices will not make an EV more desirable for low income people.

 

On a personal note. I will not be changing my car to an EV either. Again, the cost or the misguided notion of saving the planet does not even come into the equation.

 

 

Solar Cell

 

Over the last 2 years I have installed 10 external solar cell lights. Nothing to do with trying to save money or saving the planet. More to do with shutting up the LHG after she stood on a snake in the dark.

 

If I was building a house from scratch, sure, I would get it rigged up for solar. As I am not building a house from scratch, I will not be converting this house to solar, regardless of how much such  a system would cost or any saving the planet nonsense.

 

5 hours ago, sirineou said:

Not sure why I am even bothering to write this reply, You did not understand any of the previous ones, so way would you understand this one? 

 

But you did.

 

And you could try understanding the difference between reality, ambition and capability, especially for the majority of Thai people who are scraping a living.

[sirineou]

1 hour ago, The Cyclist said:

An increase in electric and fuel prices will not make an EV more desirable for low income people.

Never said anything about "Low income people" 

[The Cyclist]

28 minutes ago, sirineou said:

Never said anything about "Low income people" 

 

Well, this is Thailand, and the biggest majority of Thai people probably fall into the category of low income people, therefore it stands to reason that if they are struggling with a 400 - 700 Baht monthly electric bill, an EV will probably not be high on their list of desires.

[sirineou]

3 minutes ago, The Cyclist said:

 

Well, this is Thailand, and the biggest majority of Thai people probably fall into the category of low income people, therefore it stands to reason that if they are struggling with a 400 - 700 Baht monthly electric bill, an EV will probably not be high on their list of desires.

That might so, but That's not what I said.

I said that rising energy prices will make EVs and Solar Cell more economically viable. and it will.

[The Cyclist]

1 minute ago, sirineou said:

That might so, but That's not what I said.

I said that rising energy prices will make EVs and Solar Cell more economically viable. and it will.

 

You said

 

19 hours ago, sirineou said:

It's been a while , but if I remember my math right at 16% per year a bill will double in about 5 years!

   Do you think such scenario would make Solar cell and EVs more desirable? 

 

No, I dont, for the reasons that I have listed.

 

I always desired one of those superyacht things, then reality kicked me right in the nuts.