Egat set for power-plant spending spree

Egat deputy governor Somboon Arayasakul said yesterday that the move was part of the state agency's development of renewable energy. The 15-year plan spans from last year through 2022.

Egat will use its own cash flow to fund project development.

The plan will focus on four types of power plants - mini-hydropower plants with a combined 170MW capacity, waste power plants with a combined 15MW capacity, wind power plants with a combined 65MW capacity and solar power plants with a combined 8MW capacity.

Together they will have a total combined capacity of 258MW and require a total investment cost of Bt22 billion.

Egat divides its plan for developing renewable energy into three phases. In the first phase, from last year to 2012, it aims to create 102MW of renewable energy, of which 20.5MW will be from wind power.

Of those 20.5MW, 2.5MW are to be achieved at its turbine power plant at Lam Ta Khlong.

 During the period, it targets to produce 3MW from solar power. Egat is constructing six mini-hydropower plants with combined capacity of 78.7MW.

The overall cost of the project development in this phase is Bt7.4 billion.

In the second phase, spanning from 2013 to 2017, it aims to produce a total of 78MW of renewable energy, of which 13MW will be generated by wind power, 2MW by solar power, 7.5MW by waste power and 55.5MW from mini-hydropower.

The project total cost is Bt7.9 |billion.

In the last phase, it expects to produce 79MW, of which 32MW will be from wind power, 3MW from solar, 7.5MW from waste and 36 MWfrom mini-hydropower.

That project total cost is Bt6.7 billion.

For the overall plan of the energy ministry, the ministry aims to increase electricity generated by renewable energy to 5,608MW in 2022 from the present 1,750MW.

Of the overall 5,608MW, 500 MWwill be produced by solar power, 800MW by wind power, 324MW by hydropower, 3,700MWfrom biomass, 120MW from biogas, 160MW from waste, and 3.5MW from hydrogen.

Investment for most of the projects will come from the private |sector.