The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on Thursday approved the continuation of the fuel tariff (Ft) rate of 3.64 baht per kilowatt-hour for September-December, the third period of 2019.
Power bills had been stable over the four periods from September 2017 to December 2018 at 3.60 baht per kWh, then the ERC increased them for the first period of 2019, January-April, to 3.64 baht and maintained the rate for the second period.
Increasing the Ft rate would affect consumers’ power bills and overall domestic demand, said secretary-general Narupat Amornkosit.
"The Thai economy is suffering from the instability of the US-China trade war and shrinking exports," she said, adding that the ERC thus decided to maintain the Ft rate for another four months.
Ms Narupat said the ERC expects to allocate 9 billion baht to manage the Ft rate for September-December.
Of the budget, 3 billion baht will come from the ERC's power regulation and management budget from the previous year and 6 billion baht will come from spending of the three state power utilities (the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, the Metropolitan Electricity Authority and the Provincial Electricity Authority) to handle the higher cost of power generation.
"This budget will be managed temporarily to support maintaining the Ft rate in the third period of 2019," Ms Narupat said.
The ERC forecasts the country's electricity demand during September-December at 64.42 billion kWh, down 5.8% from May-August, in line with the seasonal decrease in demand.