Hike unlikely for Thai electricity bills

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Hike unlikely for Thai electricity bills  
Bangkok Post: 1 Apr 2010
No hike in power bills
Speedy gas pipeline fix to benefit consumers

Electricity prices are unlikely to be raised when fuel tariffs are reviewed next month thanks to a shorter-than-expected pipeline maintenance period and PTT's increased output.

"Due to the close co-operation of all related parties, the production cost did not change much. Power users can therefore expect no change in the fuel tariff on their power bills," said Norkhun Sitthipong, deputy energy permanent secretary of the Energy Ministry.

Previously, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) estimated an expense of up to 4 billion baht as a result of a one-week disruption of gas supplies from Burma's Yadana and Yetagun fields. This was because Thailand would need to use more expensive fuel oil and diesel to generate electricity for the western provinces.

After supplying almost all of its gas to Thailand for years, Burma is preparing to divert some output to feed its own power plant, said Mr Norkhun.

For technical reasons, the pipelines linking to Thailand's gas-fired power plants were to be shut down for seven days. "But we succeeded in shortening the start-up period to five days, two days ahead of our previous plan," said Mr Norkhun.Earlier, the pipeline network was scheduled to be halted from March 23 to April 1. However, it resumed operation from March 30, shortening the period when fuel-oil and diesel had to be used to feed to the power plants to offset the shrinking gas feed.

Natural gas from Burma accounts for by 30%, or 1,070 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd), of Thailand's total gas demand of 3,400 mmcfd.

PTT, the sole gas seller and pipeline operator, has produced additional gas of 130 to 2,480 mmcfd from the normal output of 2,350 in a bid to ease the tight supply in the western part of the country.

During the disruption, Egat used a total of 60 million litres of fuel oil, well below the projected 128 million litres, and 11 million litres of diesel, compared to the forecast 16 million.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/35391/no-hike-in-power-bills