The People's Party is calling on energy authorities to merge renewable power projects under the second-phase renewables scheme into the direct power purchase agreement (PPA) project, a pilot project aimed at helping to drive investment among foreign businesses that need clean energy for their operations.
Both the renewables scheme and the direct PPA project promote greater use of renewable power, but the way they trade electricity is different.
While the former sticks to power sales via the state electricity agencies, the latter promotes direct sales from power producers to users.
People's Party member Supachot Chaiyasat, also a member of the House of Representatives, made the call yesterday as the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) prepares to call for bids for renewable power plant projects in the second phase, with an electricity generation capacity of 3.6 gigawatts.
By combining the second-phase renewable energy projects with the direct PPA project, Mr Supachot means that the latter will have additional capacity of 3.6GW and the ERC should suspend its second-phase scheme.
This is aimed at reducing the burden on electricity purchasers over the long term, he said.
Electricity sales in Thailand are based on the enhanced single buyer system, which authorises the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) to be the single buyer that sells electricity to the public.
If power companies want to sell electricity produced by renewable resources, they are required to sell it to Egat and state power distribution agencies, which then distribute electricity via their grids to companies and households.
A PPA between power companies and electricity officials often last for 25 years, during which the officials are committed to an availability payment (AP).
The AP requires authorities pay for electricity throughout the whole period, though actual usage may be less during the agreed timeframe.
This approach is viewed as causing an unnecessary financial burden on consumers.
However, under a direct PPA project, companies directly negotiate with power companies on the electricity they wish to purchase.
The government earlier approved a pilot direct PPA project with capacity of 2,000 megawatts, with trade to take place in the Eastern Economic Corridor covering three provinces.
