The government has given the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) the go-ahead to extend the deadline for 14 renewable power plants to start commercial operations.
The Energy Policy Administrative Committee (Epac) approved the ERC proposal after many operators called for the government to ease the commercial operations date (COD) conditions.
The 14 projects include waste-to-energy, biogas and biomass resources, with a combined power generation of 300 megawatts. These operators have been stymied by local protesters opposing development of power projects in their communities.
Some projects have yet to begin construction because of trouble raising money or impractical technologies.
Khomgrich Tantravanich, the deputy secretary-general, said the National Energy Policy Council (NEPC) would approve the deadline extension on Dec 16.
"The ERC will screen each case separately to determine inevitable failures," he said.
According to the ERC, many operators have asked for permission to relocate their sites after being resisted by local protesters, but public hearings were completed.
Mr Khomgrich said the ERC will consider how to extend the limitation without cancelling granted licences.
All renewable power projects were granted power generation licences between 2015 and 2018, with COD deadline sof 2019-21.
"Some projects have been opposed by locals, so the ERC will extend the time frame to try and develop an understanding with communities," Mr Khomgrich said.
Of the 14 projects, two are very small power producer (SPP) programmes (an installed capacity less than 10MW) applying for industrial waste-to-energy projects. The CODs will be extended from December 2019 to March-April 2020.
One project is the community waste-to-energy project. The COD will be changed from December 2020 to December 2022.
The remaining 11 projects are SPP hybrid types, with combined power capacity of 284MW. Their CODs will be extended from 2020 to 2021-22.
Mr Khomgrich said the ERC was ordered by Epac to revise the electricity rate of charging outlets for electric vehicles because there are many complaints from fuel retailers and property developers that the number of EVs on the road is lower than expected, so they have invested in EV charging outlets but receive less payback.
The charging rate is calculated on a time-of-use basis. Peak hours from 9am to 10pm cost 4.10 baht per kilowatt-hour, while off-peak hours from 10pm to 9am cost 2.6 baht per kWh.
"The ERC is considering altering the charging rate with a proposal expected at the upcoming NEPC meeting on Dec 16," Mr Khomgrich said.