The electricity regulator will also finalise the rules determining which companies are eligible to join the second round of bidding by independent power producers (IPPs) for government projects.

Board chairman Yongyut Vichaidit said yesterday a subcommittee chaired by Vichit Lorjirachunkul was reviewing electricity production costs, and an adjustment to the FT would reflect the new production cost figures.

"We have to admit that Egat recently temporarily switched to diesel to produce electricity, due to limited natural-gas volume and a leak in the drilling platform in the Yetagun Field in Burma. While it only lasted for three days, the switch raised the generating costs Bt5 million to Bt6 million," said Yongyut.

An Energy Ministry source said the FT for the next four months would definitely be increased, although not as much as in the previous four months.

For the February-May period, the FT was raised 19 satang per unit. Without a subsidy from PTT Plc, the FT could have been raised 29 satang.

The source noted that fuel costs were expected to increase over the next four months in line with oil prices.

The price of natural gas has risen from Bt190 per million British thermal units to Bt198, while the price of bunker oil has risen to US$53.06 (Bt2,000) per barrel.

"Still, the increase should be mild, because power demand should grow at a lower-than-expected rate," he said.

Yongyut said the authorities were also considering options to help those of low income who consume less than 150 units of electricity per month.

On the IPP issue, board member Chaikasem Nitisiri said a subcommittee was finalising the shareholding limit of state enterprises in IPPs.

The subcommittee is basing its judgement on PM's Office regulations that allow only companies that are less than 25-per-cent owned by state enterprises to join government procurement projects. The regulations also stipulate that the state enterprises must not be represented on the boards of the IPPs.

The subcommittee is also using Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) regulations as a reference for finalising the rules.

SET regulations say connected companies in which cross-holding exceeds 10 per cent must be barred from bidding in a particular project, to avoid a conflict of interest. The Commercial Code is also being referred to.

The IPPs concerned are owned by Egat and PTT. PTT is considered to have a conflict of interest, being a natural-gas supplier.

"The rules will be part of the bidding terms of reference, but this issue has been of grave concern to many parties, so we want to clarify it," said Chaikasem.

Another issue is the exact power demand that the winning IPP must generate.

Chaikasem said the board still needed confirmation from Egat whether it would be able to produce half of the new demand. If so, the other half would be put up for auction.

Meanwhile, Pornchai Rujiprapha, deputy permanent secretary for energy, said the annual purchase of 2,310 units of power from the Nam Nguem II project in Laos would be discussed at today's meeting at the National Energy Policy Office.

Once the purchase is approved, Egat will sign the deal on Friday with Nam Nguem II investor Southeast Asia Energy Ltd.