This would be Egat's latest attempt to find Bt100 billion to invest in new power plants, after the Supreme Court ruled in April it could not sell its initial public offering shares.

Egat previously planned to expand its power plants via its Electricity Generating Plc and Ratchaburi Electricity Plc subsidiaries.

Deputy permanent secretary Pornchai Rujiprapha said he had recently spoken with PTT president Prasert Bunsumpun and Egat governor Kraisri Karnasutra about finding a way to ease limitations on mobilising funding for Egat's business expansion.

"The ministry wants PTT to participate in future Egat investment expansion," he said, adding that this would assure the country's energy security.

Pornchai said Egat now generated half of all total domestic power. The company must find a huge source of funding for new power plants planned from 2011-2021 with a total capacity of 1,500-2,000 megawatts if it wants to keep its market share.

He said if Egat were unable to invest in new plants, leaving them instead to private firms, the country's power generation would be dominated by the private sector.

"This would affect the country's energy security and push the burden of higher electricity bills onto the public," he said.

"Egat and PTT are both under the supervision of the Energy Ministry. So maintaining the state-owned firm's power-generation market share of 50 per cent by raising funds via PTT would be better than losing all of the market to the private sector," said Pornchai.

Watcharapong Thongrung

The Nation