Thailand looks to Malaysia for power

Thailand will ask Malaysia to supply 200MW of electricity.

This is necesssary to avert possible blackouts from April 4 to 14, according to Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) deputy governor, Thana Putarungsi.

Egat plans to increase electricity reserves to 1,000 megawatts from the expected 700 MW during April's scheduled disruption in the supply of natural gas from Myanmar. Thana said Egat examined the electricity supply system and found that only 767 MW or 2% of the total power reserve would be available during that April period, making a power outage possible. Normally reserves of 10-15% of the country's generating capacity of 31,000 MW are available.

The supply disruption will mainly affect three power plants in western Thailand with a combined generating capacity of 6,000 MW. Egat projects power consumption will peak at 26,000 MW on April 5, when the temperature is forecast to be 36 degrees Celsius.

He said Egat is planning to maximise output at two hydroelectric dams in western Thailand to generate another 5 MW. Small power producers such as Dan Chang Sugar Mill will also be asked to supply more electricity to the utility.

Egat will also ask the operators of power plants fuelled by bunker oil and diesel to produce the maximum output so an additional 30 MW will be generated on top of the existing 1,400 MW . Large private power users including Siam City Cement Plc, TPI Polene and Thai-Asahi will also be asked to cut production during the peak hours of that period to save 65 MW of consumption.

Maintenance work on a gas platform in Myanmar's Yadana block in the Gulf of Martaban will cause a dip of 1.1 billion cubic feet per day of gas to Thailand. Gas from Myanmar accounts for a quarter of Thailand's supply, with gas making up 70% of power generation domestically.

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