The Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) has revised upwards its estimate of the growth in electricity consumption this year.
MEA Governor Pornthep Thanyapongchai said the authority had revised its estimate of growth to 6 per cent, or 45,500 million units, from 1.45 per cent as targeted earlier.
Electricity consumption in the first six months of the year grew by 12 per cent to 22,762 million units. But the MEA has projected domestic demand for electricity in the full year to 6 per cent based on assumption that the economy has not yet fully recovered and there will be lower demand for electricity during the period of cooler weather at the end of the year.
Pornthep said the growth of electricity demand is a good indicator of the economic recovery, especially in the automobile, electronics and steel industries. Electricity consumption last year was declined by 1.2 per cent, following the economic slowdown.
The MEA posted a first sixmonths net profit of Bt6.19 billion (on sales revenue of Bt77.59 billion), up 24 per cent from Bt4.99 billion (on the sales revenue of Bt72.59 billion) in the same period last year.
Pornthep said figures for the year would depend on the return of foreign investment, and trends in exports and toursim.
The governor said the authority had an investment budget of Bt24.43 billion to spend on electricityrelated projects, notably an 11.8km underground electricity transmission line project, and operating works.
The MEA plans to spend Bt7.36 billion this year, more than Bt20 billion next year and Bt10 billion in 2011.
Most of the investment will be used for pending projects such as the improvement of transmission lines, and the chage from above ground to underground on a 12.6 kilometres stretch on Sukhumvit Road. The project, which is expected to be complete in 2012, is part of a 15-year (2008-2022) master plan putting transmission lines underground for a total of 180 kilometres at a cost of Bt77 billion.