Energy Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga vows to keep energy prices, including electricity and oil, low for households and businesses throughout this year as part of strenuous efforts to regulate power bills that remain elevated compared with neighbouring countries.
Various measures such as excise tax reduction, price subsidy programmes under the Oil Fuel Fund and help from national oil and gas conglomerate PTT Plc as well as the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) will be carried out to control energy prices.
Mr Pirapan said the most recent move involves blocking a request from local refineries to increase the diesel price by 0.5 baht a litre, as Thailand initiated a policy to use a higher-quality diesel that meets the Euro 5 environmental emission standard since Jan 1.
Oil companies said they have higher costs to develop such diesel.
He said on Friday he would talk with refinery operators regarding the costs after the Petroleum Refining Industry Club of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) said refineries allocated a combined budget worth more than 50 billion baht to upgrade their facilities and expand capacity over the past several years.
Officials are continuing to keep the domestic diesel price below 30 baht a litre until March 31 through an excise tax cut and a subsidy from the Oil Fuel Fund.
Earlier this week, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) decided to cap the power tariff at 4.2 baht per kilowatt-hour (unit). The new rate applies from January to April.
The ERC last year announced it planned to increase the power tariff, which is used to calculate electricity bills, to 4.68 baht a unit, up from 3.99 baht a unit applicable from September to December last year.
The commission attributed the increase to higher projected fuel costs and the need to reimburse Egat, which ran a huge loss after subsidising electricity prices for the public.
The reduction of the power tariff means it will take longer to repay Egat, which is struggling to carefully manage its finances.
The FTI suggested last year the government further reduce the power tariff as the rates in Indonesia and Vietnam are 2.3 and 2.7 baht a unit, respectively.
Mr Pirapan said the peak period of electricity demand in 2023 reached 34,827 megawatts on May 6 from 9pm to 10pm, a 5% rise from 2022.
He attributed the increase to greater use of electric vehicles, which will prompt the authorities to adjust the country's power supply management in the future.