SET-listed SPCG, a pioneer in solar farm development in Thailand, expects to miss its revenue target of 4.7 billion baht this year because of heavy rain and the expiration of the adder tariff granted to its solar farms.
Pipat Viriyatranon, SPCG financial director, blamed torrential rain in the third quarter of this year for reducing electricity generation at the company's solar farms.
SPCG estimates its power output at 375 million kilowatt-hours (units) in 2022, below its target of 388 million units.
The expiration of the adder tariff also cut into its revenue this year, said Mr Pipat.
The eight-baht tariff, introduced by the government to encourage investors to build solar farms, is added to the electricity rate, allowing SPCG to sell electricity to the state grid at a higher price for 10 years following the start of operations.
The tariff was granted to SPCG's 36 solar farms in the northeast and central regions and expires in phases between 2020 and 2024.
Nine of its solar farms already had the tariff expire between 2020 and 2022. The tariff expires for another 14 of its solar farms next year, while the remaining 13 lose the levy in 2024.
Without the adder tariff, SPCG will see its earnings fall by up to 900 million baht a year between 2023 and 2024, he said.
To deal with the revenue loss, SPCG is preparing to develop 23 new solar farms across the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) under the government's 500-megawatt EEC Solar Farm scheme.
SPCG is waiting for development and operation licences from energy authorities. The electricity generation capacity of the EEC Solar Farm is set at 316MW for the first phase.
The firm also invested in solar farms in Japan, including the 30MW Tottori Ukujima farm, which opened in 2018, and the 23MW North Miyako farm, which started operations in July 2021.
SPCG is developing another two solar farms in Japan -- the 44MW South Miyako and 480MW Ukujima Mega Solar projects -- which are scheduled to open in February 2023 and July 2024, respectively.