The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) has repeated its single "policy" statement for the nation. It will build large coal-fired power plants, because Thailand needs to expand its energy production and there is no viable alternative. It is a troubling stance for Egat to take. The Authority is one of the more professional and respected institutions of the country. There are serious problems afoot when Egat stubbornly repeats old internal dogma, yet gets no pushback from important powers, especially the government.
Here is Egat's argument in a nutshell, and it is discouraging that the state enterprise's executives present it in such a closed-minded manner. Gas resources are running out, to the extent the country cannot depend on its own supplies, nor access to Myanmar's. Solar, wind, biogas and other renewable energy sources are too expensive to use on the national grid. Therefore, the only alternative is coal. And since it must be coal that will produce future electricity supplies, only really big power plants are acceptable and affordable.
First and foremost, this is not a policy. It is simply justification that serves Egat's decision makers. They have been playing the coal card for years now. Egat seems to feel that if they repeat the small number of talking points often enough, eventually they will either convince the country or wear it down, and there is no real difference between these two results.
It's not working, of course. Civil society has long raised red flags over the building of huge coal-fired electricity-generating plants. There is widespread agreement — not unanimous, admittedly — that the use of coal should be phased out in Thailand, not increased. Locally available coal is "dirty" and extremely polluting. And while available foreign supplies of the fuel are reasonably certain, there is no such thing as clean coal, either.
Egat is correct on two points. The first is that Thailand continues to grow economically, and will need more electricity in the near future. The second is that Thailand's gas fields have finite limits, and will cease being able to fire power plants around 2020 or so. It is when Egat conflates these and declares them the basis of a so-called policy that the problem pops up.
And that problem lies exactly with the word "policy". Egat doesn't have one. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has promised one, but has fallen behind. Ironically, civil society has been halted and harassed by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) every time it has sought a public forum on the issue since May 22. Egat is obviously taking advantage of a vacuum of information and action to press its programme, along with the claim that there are no alternatives to big, coal-fired electricity plants.
Gen Prayut did order one badly needed step that could be part of the national energy policy. He authorised licences for more searches and production of carbon fuel, both gas and oil. But any national policy must include an understanding that coal-fired plants should be phased out, not increased in size and number.
Egat's dismissive wave to renewable energies is quite discouraging. Solar, wind, ocean waves and other alternative sources are expensive because they are not yet used. A true national policy must be developed urgently to set up, research and most importantly plug alternative energy sources into the national grid.
Problems of cost and scale will not be solved by pessimistic talk. Aggressive and imaginative use of actual, hands-on alternative energies is needed.