The Energy Policy and Planning Office (Eppo) plans to launch a new round of licensing bids for the development of renewable power projects for the small power producer (SPP) programme under a hybrid firm power purchasing agreement, or SPP hybrid firm.
The licences will be for a combined power-generating capacity of 300 megawatts.
With a firm power purchasing agreement (PPA), the SPPs need to be well managed in terms of power resources and power storage systems to generate constant power to the state utilities.
A firm PPA is a contract under which operators supply an exact amount of power as required by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.
An SPP hybrid firm PPA allows operators to mix in renewable power resources such as gas, biomass or other agricultural waste to generate power. The country's renewable power development plan calls for licences for investors to generate a total capacity of 850-1,000MW this year.
Twarath Sutabutr, director-general of Eppo, said licences for the SPP hybrid projects are expected to be provided to investors by the second quarter this year. The licences consist of five groups, with the first to be granted SPP hybrid firm PPAs.
He said the total investment in all five groups of renewable power licences this year is expected to be 42-50 billion baht, excluding investment in land.
Before issuing licences, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) will screen investors to ensure they are active. Inactive investors are barred from this round because there were some 200MW of inactive projects that obtained licences since last year with no investment being made.
The screening process is expected to be complete by April. The ERC will issue investment conditions and business models for the projects.
The Provincial Electricity Authority and the Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency Department will map out the locations to avoid renewable power projects in areas that lack transmission lines.
The second round of renewable power licences for this year is for very small power producers (VSPPs), which could be under a semi-firm power purchasing agreement. These projects include biomass and other renewable power sources nationwide, including in the three deep southern provinces, with total capacity of 289MW.
Investment conditions and business models will be determined by the ERC, said Mr Twarath.
The ERC set up two VSPPs in the deep South under the Pracha Rat project. The first phase covered capacity of 18MW and the second 35MW.
The last renewable group to be given licences this year were solar farms and waste-to-energy projects with 200MW capacity.