Private power producers have urged the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to renew concessions under the small power producer scheme for another 25 years as the current ones are due to expire.
Paitool Paisalsukwittaya, vice-chairman of the Association of Private Power Producers, said the concessions for 25 small power producers (SPPs) with total capacity of 2,908 megawatts will start running out from 2017 to 2020.
The producers signed agreements to sell power to the state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) from 1997.
Most of the SPPs are located in industrial estate areas in central Thailand and the Eastern Seaboard under a policy to secure power generation for businesses.
The first SPP whose concession will end is Glow Power Co, which operates in Map Ta Phut with 90 MW, scheduled to end in April 2017.
"ERC should finalise a plan to renew the concessions by June this year as it will take more than three years to reconstruct a power plant," said Mr Paitool.
He said most SPPs used co-generation power generators which produce electricity and steam for industrial production process.
Mr Paitool said the group had tried to seek approval for concession renewal from ERC several times over the past few years, adding if they were renewed on time it would cut power generating costs by around 500 million baht to 4.5 billion baht per one plant, with capacity for 120 MW.
He said prior to SPP concessions, there were frequent power shortages and disruptions in the industrial sector, especially in outer areas. The SPP programme has mostly eliminated the problem.
Toru Nagahata, president of Sumitomo Rubber (Thailand) Co, Thailand's third-largest tyre producer, insisted the power supply from SPPs was crucial for its factory as a power disruption for only 0.6 seconds could cause defects for up to 1,000 sets of tyres.
"Power supply security is crucial for our plant as our daily output is 74,000 sets of tyres. We export up to 40% of them," said Mr Nagahata.
Sumitomo made deals to buy power from Amata B. Grimm Co in Amata City Industrial Estate in Rayong last year, helping it end its power supply disruptions.
Kraisi Karnasuta, a commissioner with ERC, plans to talk with Egat about appropriate principles for renewing SPP concessions.
"We need to consider the power cost rate for SPPs that sell power to Egat, as well as the efficiency of their power generation," said Mr Kraisi.
He said the process to finalise the new principles would finish by late June. But the ERC may cut the amount of power SPPs can sell back to Egat, with a ceiling of 90 MW.
Mr Kraisi said the independent power producer scheme, whose concessions were set to expire in six to seven years, would see similar changes.