The revision is in line with the Bank of Thailand's second-quarter figures, which showed a slowdown in production, consumption and investment due to high oil prices and interest rates, as well as low economic confidence.

Egat governor Kraisri Karnasutra said the state agency initially predicted energy generation should rise to 13,000MW from 2011 to 2015, but the latest revision of the Power Development Plan saw the figure trimmed to 9,000MW. The power will be produced by Egat, using fuel from neighbouring countries.

Meanwhile, Egat is looking for sites to construct coal-fired power plants in accordance with the Energy Ministry's plan to achieve a ratio of electricity generation of 20 per cent from hydropower, 30-50 per cent from coal and the remainder from natural gas, Kraisri said.

In the long term, Egat plans to reduce dependency on natural gas for power generation from 70 per cent currently to 50 per cent, and turn to alternative energy sources such as coal and solar cells, he said.

As for new Egat power plants to be built from 2011 to 2015, Egat is looking for appropriate sites for coal-fired plants because they are less costly. Rayong, Prachuab Khiri Khan, Chumphon and Surat Thani are likely sites because the plants would require coal to be shipped in from overseas. The stress on coal-fired power plants is to reduce power generation from costly bunker oil, Kraisri said.

He said Egat was ready to construct the four other power plants to be built before 2011. The company should not have problems financing the plants because it had money from the sale of its Ratchaburi power plant. Moreover, it has not invested in any new projects for several years.

Kraisri said the fuel tariff (FT) charge was likely to stay unchanged in the next period of calculation (October 2006-January 2007) since Egat had managed to keep power-generating costs low by bringing natural gas from the Pu Hom Field in the northeastern province of Udon Thani.

It has also coordinated with PTT Public Company Limited (PTT) to bring in more gas from Burma for power generation.

Kraisri yesterday launched a fund to support Egat's research and development. Egat has allocated Bt120 million to the fund this year, in accordance with the Cabinet's directive that government agencies should spend at least 3 per cent of net profit on research and development.