Egat calls for standby power cuts

ELECTRICITY

The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) is asking electrical goods producers to cut standby power consumption in their products to less than one watt per 20 hours, said governor Sombat Sarntijaree.

"We are talking to television and computer monitor producers such as Panasonic, Samsung, LG and Philips first, because these screens consume high standby power compared with other products," he said.

Egat is in the process of setting the mandatory standby power standard to be enforced under the Consumer Protection Act starting in 2011.

But Egat wants to see better quality products on the market by next year, said Mr Sombat.

The International Energy Agency proposes that electrical goods producers reduce consumption during standby to no more than one watt per 20 hours.

Standby power is the electricity used by appliances when their working systems are off but they are still on standby.

The mode is seen as a waste of energy as devices can consume up to 25 watts per 20 hours on standby.

"Billions of electrical appliances are used in households and commercial buildings, so the loss due to standby mode is mounting to billions of baht per year," said Mr Sombat.

Standby mode alone causes power losses of 2-3 billion kilowatt/hours or 500 megawatts per year, equal to the annual capacity of the Bhumibol hydropower plant.

Home appliances such as microwave ovens, rice cookers, televisions, DVD players and personal computers are all required by law to upgrade their quality.

The one-watt programme was launched by the IEA in 1999 to seek international co-operation to end the production of home electrical appliances that consume more than one watt over 20 hours of standby by 2010.

This would reduce CO2 emissions by 50 million tonnes in the OECD countries alone, equivalent to taking 18 million cars off the roads, according to an IEA report.