The Energy Ministry plans to sign power trading agreements with Malaysia and Laos in early September, expecting to triple electricity trading among the three countries.
The agreements will be signed in Bangkok between three state utilities: the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), the Electricite du Laos, and Tenaga Nasional Berhad (Malaysia).
Under the agreements, Egat will be the buyer and the other two nations sellers.
Representatives of the three countries will sign the energy purchase agreements, including an additional agreement for power capacity of 300 megawatts, up from the existing agreement of 100MW.
The three nations initiated the pilot electricity trading scheme in 2016 and 2017 with capacity of 50MW.
Kulit Sombatsiri, the ministry's permanent secretary, said the new plan will help to maximise the capacity utilisation of generated power.
Malaysia is one hour ahead of both Thailand and Laos, so Thailand as a buyer can extend its peak time period from the power trading agreements.
"More details and conditions of new agreements will be discussed between three countries, which are expected to conclude very soon," said Mr Kulit.
Kulit: Trying to maximise capacity
Moreover, the ministry has announced its readiness to host the 37th Senior Official Meeting on Energy and Associated Meetings (SOME), scheduled for June 24-28 in Bangkok.
The 37th SOME results will be reported to the 37th Asean Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM) on Sept 4-5, also in Bangkok.
He said AMEM will discuss regional energy cooperation projects and will focus on the connectivity of the Southeast Asian power grid, gas pipelines and infrastructure expansion.
"The meeting will discuss promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency as well as understanding of cleaner coal technology and nuclear energy," said Mr Kulit.
Thailand wants to be the regional leader in pushing the establishment of Southeast Asia's power grid, connecting the region to support overall economic growth, he said.
This year Thailand plans to arrange memorandums of understanding for the Asean Centre for Energy to support working towards the establishment of the Asean Biofuels and Bioenergy R&D network.
Thailand plans to finish a roadmap for implementing recommendations of the Gas Advocacy White Paper and the study of small-scale LNG infrastructure and bunker oil.
The 37th SOME consists of the 10 Southeast Asia nations and other dialogue partners such as China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US.