FT electricity surcharge cut for January-April



BANGKOK: -- The Energy Regulatory Commission has decided to slash the FT surcharge for electricity for the months of January-April 2015 by 10.01 satang/unit due to the price reduction of natural gas and bunker oil which are used to fuel power generation.

Mr Veeraphol Chirapraditkul, a member of the commission, said that the reduction of FT surcharge would bring the basic charge of electricity for all users to an average of 3.86 baht/unit for the months of January-April.

He attributed the FT surcharge cut to the price reduction of natural gas by 7.43 baht/million BTU to 285.90 baht/million BTU and bunker oil to 22.03 baht/litre down by 5.86 baht/litre.

However, he said that whether FT surcharge cut would be big or small would also depend on global crude oil prices. If crude oil price remains at about US$60 per barrel throughout the year, he added that FCT surcharge for the May-August and September-December periods would be further reduced.

Mr Veeraphol said he doubted the claim by the Federation of Thai Industries that the FT surcharge for the January-April period should be slashed by 20 satang/unit, saying that the FT charge would reflect the actual cost of electricity production of each period.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/ft-electricity-surcharge-cut-january-april


-- Thai PBS 2014-12-26

Yet another gift from Prayuth!!

Nothing to do with world market oil prices of course!!

That would save me 18 baht on my latest bill.......way to go!

Don't know how Khun Veeraphol is arriving at his new and improved Bt3.86 per KWH but I expect he's looking at the current & various MEA/PEA "basic" rates (that is, before you add on Ft, VAT, service charges, etc) that vary by amount of KWH used per month. He then used one of lower rates which someone living in the jungle with one frig, one light bulb, and one fan would incur due to using very little electricity. However, for most folks who have some TVs, settop boxes, computers, water pumps, A/Cs, and various other electrical devices using electricity they will incur a higher basic rate per KWH.

For example, most residential homes/condos "if" a person electricity account is in their own name and bill directly to them from MEA/PEA will have the following basic rates before Ft, VAT, etc., is added on....info from the MEA (electric company for Bangkok area) website. If a person don't have the electric service in their name and get billed via the condo association, landlord, etc., well, that condo association, landlord, etc., could be using whatever rate he wants and there are plenty of ThaiVisa posts where they use significantly higher rates....creates a nice little profit for them.

http://www.mea.or.th/profile/index.php?l=en&tid=3&mid=111&pid=109

Now a person can use the electric bill calculator on the MEA web site to determine what their electric bill will be...a person just needs to enter their total electric usage per month and the Ft rate (i.e., currently 0.69 and going down to basically 0.59), hit enter and it will give you your bill to include all the various charges. Go to this MEA webpage to use the calculator.

Using the 1.2 Residential Tariff as shown above lets see how the new Ft will change someone bill if using 500, 1000, or 2,000 KWH per month

KWH Used With Current Ft of 0.69 With New Ft of 0.59

500KWH Bt2,274 Bt2,220

1000KWH Bt4,749 Bt4,642

2000KWH Bt9,699 Bt9,485

So what would the "average" rate for KWH be when consider the basic rate, the Ft, VAT, and other charges....just the final price.

For 500KWH per month: Bt4.44.

For 1000KWH per month Bt4.642

For 2000KWh per month: Bt4.74.

And just to repeat these would be the rates for people with the electric service in their name and billed directly from MEA/PEA. If you are not billed directly but through your condo association, landlord, etc., it will depend on whatever rate per KWH they use to charge you...from posts I've seen many seem to add a baht, or two, or three per KWH...I've seen several posts who say they are currently charged around Bt7 per KWH--ouch.

Regardless of what they charge it is far to high for the average poor paid Thai, however the rebates for big business investment are generous and so they should be, the short fall is hand balled , the people are paying for it.

I am lost. They talk about a price cut, when no price cut is in the formula.

I am lost. They talk about a price cut, when no price cut is in the formula.

Part of the formula is the Ft charge. Currrently, Ft is Bt0.69 per KWH; being reduced to Bt0.59

Yet another gift from Prayuth!!

Nothing to do with world market oil prices of course!!

Nah, not at all...

"He attributed the FT surcharge cut to the price reduction of natural gas by 7.43 baht/million BTU to 285.90 baht/million BTU and bunker oil to 22.03 baht/litre down by 5.86 baht/litre."

Regardless of what they charge it is far to high for the average poor paid Thai, however the rebates for big business investment are generous and so they should be, the short fall is hand balled , the people are paying for it.

For the poor or for low usage below a certain amount, the whole electricity charge is waived unless that benefit has been recently changed. I used to live in a place with 3 meters, one of them always registered a very small usage (less than 300 baht's worth I think) and that bill was always 0 baht.

Happy days are here again lets all go and celebrate, 12 straws and bottle of Chang my man!!

I am lost. They talk about a price cut, when no price cut is in the formula.

Its called Houdini sleight of hand

Great news, AC in the lounge for the hot season it is!

Half the country don't pay anything as previously touched on in post #9.

Here in the wife's house we pay about 65 baht a month as it's a 15 amp connection. Even if we are away for the month and use no power we still have to pay 42 baht cos its 15amp.

Next door mum and dad pay nothing....as the bill is always zero! They have a 5 amp connection.

What's FT?

What's FT? '

some sort of tax/surcharge who knows what the FT, stands for maybe 'further tax', or 'fixed tax' or ' fake tax'

Fuel tarrif/tax

Who care about this small difference , the bad thing is the house owners they add 2 to 4 Baht every kw/h the renter consumes, have staff who pay 7 and 8 Baht- Kw/h.

Per MEA Ft means: Fuel Adjustment Charge (at The Given time).

Basically it's a Fuel Tariff to adjust for the varying cost of fuel over time to generate energy. Years back oil/natural gas use to have a fairly stable price, but then the world changed and fuel cost started to vary greatly and trying to adjust the basic electric rates frequently was a political/regulatory nightmare. So they came up with the idea of leaving the basic rates per KWH alone (or at least not changed that often) and instead include a Ft charge to account for the varying price of fuel which apparently was more politically doable. Kinda like how airlines and shipping companies include a varying fuel charge in their ticket/transport prices....you know the charge they raise in a heartbeat when the price of fuel goes up but really drag their feet to lower when the price of fuel of goes down (like now).

There are houses where I live where even though they 3 air cons and washing machine etc, lights on all night, the meter does not move, amazing! In a normal company the meter reader would report that it seems strange that reading so low regularly. The local electric compnay acknowledge there are problems on the estate yet do nothing to solve it. If they really wanted to all they have to do is to send the meter reader along after 2 weeks instead of 4 and do a few checks, on second thoughts just sweep it under the carpet. Perhaps that why there are not going to be any price cuts seen, it just looks better.

Maybe below snapshot of a MEA electric bill calculator result can can best overview the Basic Rate per KWH charge, the Ft per KWH charge, Fees, and VAT for a 1000 KWH per month bill. The snapshot uses the Residential 1.2 tariff and includes the Ft of Bt0.59 KWH to go into effect for Jan-Apr 15 versus the current Ft of Bt0.69.

Just how much would our bills be reduced if they cut back on all the perks given out like free electricity. Transparency on who receives free electric & why could be quite revealing. Like Thai Airways the ones who get a free ride are usually the ones who already have stacks of cash.

Regardless of what they charge it is far to high for the average poor paid Thai, however the rebates for big business investment are generous and so they should be, the short fall is hand balled , the people are paying for it.

For the poor or for low usage below a certain amount, the whole electricity charge is waived unless that benefit has been recently changed. I used to live in a place with 3 meters, one of them always registered a very small usage (less than 300 baht's worth I think) and that bill was always 0 baht.

Below are the current rules...it's free if not exceeding 50 KWH per month. And a person would probably not exceed 50 KWH per month if only using one light bulb, a fan, and very small frig. Several years ago for a year or so it was 90 KWH per month which should be good for two light bulbs, two fans, and a very small frig.

Customer, who is classified under 1.1.1, will be received free electricity for that month if consumption not exceeding 50 kWh.

1. Customer with installed meter less than 5 Amp, 200 V., 1 phase, 2 Wires, is classified under 1.1.1. However, if monthly consumption is over 150 kWh for 3 consecutive months, the customer will be reclassified under 1.1.2 in the following month; and if monthly consumption is not over 150 kWh for 3 consecutive months, the customer will be reclassified under 1.1.1 in the following month.

2. Customer with installed meter over 5 Amp, 220 V., 1 Phase, 2 Wires, is classified under 1.1.2.

3. As for tariff No. 1.2, if meter is installed on the low voltage side of customer’s transformer, another 2% must be added to energy consumption in order to compensate for transformer losses.

4. Tariff No. 1.2 is an optional rate, and may switch back to Tariff No. 1.1 following a minimum use of 12 months. Moreover, the customer is obligate to pay for any additional cost of installing and removing any equipment which required to the meter, and/or any cost by PEA.

Using the MEA electric bill calculator, a person using 51 KWH per month under Tariff 1.1.1 (ie.., 51 KWH exceeds the free 50 KWH allocation) he would have a bill of Bt181.31 with the current Ft which would have to be paid. 50 KWH or under is free.