Emergency Plan Ready For Thailand's April Power Crisis

[QED]

Would have made sense to do this "routine maintenance" in January, no? Bit cooller then.

the maintenance is done by Myanmar on Myanmar gas fields. why don't you offer yourself as adviser and tell these backward people when exactly any maintenance should be done?

Plus the gas from this field is piped directly to Thailand, Myanmar don't use any of it, so I guess they couldn't really give a toss

Perhaps this question has been asked and answered already but if so I've missed it.

There is plenty of natural gas on the world market. Why can Thailand, or the power companies, not purchase it elsewhere to make up for the shortfall from Myanmar?

This a 24" pipeline direct from Myanmar, you would need an inordinate amount of tankers and storage to replace that for 9 days

[h90]

Is importing LNG more expensive than using diesel and bunker oil as an alternative? If not, why is there no announcement about the EXTRA gas tankers booked to alleviate the shortfall? Was 7 months not enough time to organise shipments, or did somebody put this in the "too hard" tray until it was too late?

maybe no one wanted to pay the under the table fee for the gas tanker

[h90]

rubl, on 26 Feb 2013 - 20:45, said:

waterdog, on 26 Feb 2013 - 17:14, said:

Perhaps this question has been asked and answered already but if so I've missed it.

There is plenty of natural gas on the world market. Why can Thailand, or the power companies, not purchase it elsewhere to make up for the shortfall from Myanmar?

Short term contracts are expensive, the natural gas needs to be of about the same mixture as what's used now, transport needs to be available (think LNG tankers), storage for the gas (at an easy location), etc., etc.

Mind you, not my field of expertise, I probably missed a few really relevant reasons

Well if Myanmar is servicing the fields every April for the last decade it is not that "short" term. Beside that electric outage isn't cheap for the industry and they don't need to supply the full amount on expensive contracts, just enough to have the difference between a few shortages and just enough.

Beside they could also buy electric....

Oh, you mean planning for events! I have been in Thailand too long it seems:)

BTW buy electricity may not be an option. I do not know if the powergrid of Thailand is coupled with any of those of neighbouring countries.

Most probably Malaysia isn't paying the under the table fee so it is a no go with this government.

[rubl]

From the EGAT site:

"EGAT's grid system is presently linked to Laos by 115 kV and 230 kV lines and to Malaysia by 115 kV, 132 kV and the new 300 kV HVDC lines."
http://www.egat.co.th/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46%3Awelcome-to-electricity-generating-authority-of-thailand&showall=1

[jamhar]

call me crazy, but would not it be better to do the black out at night?

2pm-5pm is the hottest time of the day, not exactly the most appropriate time.

Turning off power during the hottest period of the day saves the most. Pure logic, someone to be commended for thinking of this.

On the plus side we will surely see a really surging economy in May, compared to April that is

Yes it does save the most but also affects most people and most businesses.

Can do the black outs at night for double the time in a number of regions at the same time to compensate, but blacking shopping mall out in the middle of the day is not exactly the brightest idea in my opinion, not to mention banks, hotels and so on

its a peak demand issue.

you cant "save":at night and use it in the day.

power is produced. you can use it or not.

in the peak periods, theres not enough reserve to fulfill it.

at night, they back off on the power production to be more efficient.

If the demand during the day exceeds production,

the blackouts will happen, like it or not.

So be more efficient during the day.

all unnecessary lights out.

all unnecessary AC off.

All necessary AC, raise the thermostat 2 deg higher.

use a fan when possible instead of AC

every little bit helps.

[kbvicar]

Would have made sense to do this "routine maintenance" in January, no? Bit cooller then.

the maintenance is done by Myanmar on Myanmar gas fields. why don't you offer yourself as adviser and tell these backward people when exactly any maintenance should be done?

Plus the gas from this field is piped directly to Thailand, Myanmar don't use any of it, so I guess they couldn't really give a toss

>Perhaps this question has been asked and answered already but if so I've missed it.

There is plenty of natural gas on the world market. Why can Thailand, or the power companies, not purchase it elsewhere to make up for the shortfall from Myanmar?

This a 24" pipeline direct from Myanmar, you would need an inordinate amount of tankers and storage to replace that for 9 days

Wrong. The PL from Yadana platform to the Burmese/Thai border is 36". From there to the Ratchburi powerplant the PL is 42".

[OzMick]

Would have made sense to do this "routine maintenance" in January, no? Bit cooller then.

the maintenance is done by Myanmar on Myanmar gas fields. why don't you offer yourself as adviser and tell these backward people when exactly any maintenance should be done?

Plus the gas from this field is piped directly to Thailand, Myanmar don't use any of it, so I guess they couldn't really give a toss

>Perhaps this question has been asked and answered already but if so I've missed it.

There is plenty of natural gas on the world market. Why can Thailand, or the power companies, not purchase it elsewhere to make up for the shortfall from Myanmar?

This a 24" pipeline direct from Myanmar, you would need an inordinate amount of tankers and storage to replace that for 9 days

"...in June 2012 there were 72 new builds on order. Today the majority of the new ships under construction are in the size of 120,000–140,000 m³ But there are orders for ships with capacity up to 260,000 m³. As of end of 2011, there are 359 LNG ships engaged in the deepsea movement of LNG."

"Since 2005, Qatargas has pioneered the development of two new classes of LNG carriers, referred to as Q-Flex and Q-Max. Each ship has a cargo capacity of between 210,000 and 266,000 cubic meters......." Wiki

The large diameter main acts as a storage vessel, and should supply gas at decreasing pressure for some time. Certainly a few tankers in the size range above would supplement supply.

[QED]

>Perhaps this question has been asked and answered already but if so I've missed it.

There is plenty of natural gas on the world market. Why can Thailand, or the power companies, not purchase it elsewhere to make up for the shortfall from Myanmar?

This a 24" pipeline direct from Myanmar, you would need an inordinate amount of tankers and storage to replace that for 9 days

Wrong. The PL from Yadana platform to the Burmese/Thai border is 36". From there to the Ratchburi powerplant the PL is 42".

Sorry you are right, I was confusing Yadana and Yetagun, which also has a shut down at exactly the same time...

[kbvicar]

No worries. All these damn PL's get confusing (I've been installing them for 30+ years including Yadana and Yetagun). Here's a map that might help. Oh yeah, Khun Naam--Burma does indeed receive gas from the Yadana platform and they DO "give a toss"...

Naam--"Plus the gas from this field is piped directly to Thailand, Myanmar
don't use any of it, so I guess they couldn't really give a toss"

What an idiotic statement...

[Carioca]

Much rather go to the beach at 2 pm rather than waking up sweating at 3 am