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ENERGY
YUTHANA PRAIWAN
The upcoming fuel tariff (Ft) adjustment on electricity bills is likely to rise by 0.40 baht per unit (kilowatt/hour), driven by higher costs of natural gas, energy policy planners said yesterday.
The new Ft rate will take effect from October to January. The rate is reviewed every four months to take into account changes in fuel costs, exchange rates and other factors.
The current Ft rate is 0.6285 baht a unit, down slightly from 0.6886 baht in the February-May period. The Ft adjustment is applied on top of the base power rate of 2.25 baht a unit, which can be higher or lower depending on customers' consumption.
The Office of the Energy Regulatory Board will discuss the Ft rate next week and it is very likely to be higher because natural gas was now more expensive, said Norkhun Sitthipong, the Energy Ministry's deputy permanent secretary.
Natural gas accounts for about 70% of all fuel used to generate electricity in Thailand.
Natural gas currently averages around 230 baht per million British Thermal Units (BTU), up from 200 baht in the previous Ft review period.Mr Norkhun, who also chairs the board of PTT Plc, the country's biggest energy company, said energy planners were now looking at ways to manage fuel usage in the power sector as efficiently as possible to contain costs.
''If we can control fuel costs in the power sector, it can translate into a lower Ft rate and lessen the burden of power consumers,'' he noted.
''We will create better combinations of various fuels as we aim to see lower fuel cost than in gas-fired power plants.''
That meant that hydroelectric and coal-fired power plants were likely to play a bigger role in the future, he added.
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