Electricity bills from September to December this year will likely be unchanged at 3.5966 baht per kilowatt-hour thanks to a subsidy coming from excess fuel tariffs (Ft) collected earlier.
This means electricity prices will remain the same throughout 2018 despite rising world oil prices and a weak baht. The trend will likely continue next year.
To cushion the impact on consumers, regulators have used the excess Ft collected earlier to stabilise local prices.
The Ft, or fuel cost, is one of the two parts of the overall power pricing formula. The other is the base price. The Ft is revised every four months.
According to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the Ft was projected to rise by 7.46 satang per kilowatt-hour during the period, given oil price and baht trends.
However, the ERC decided to tap 3.9 billion baht of its accumulated Ft totalling 15.3 billion baht to subsidise the Ft for the period, said ERC commissioner and spokesman Viraphol Jirapraditkul.
The remaining 11.4 billion baht will be used to manage the Ft in the following period from January to April next year.
Fuel prices rose during the May-August period. Natural gas, in particular, is expected to increase by another 17.54 baht per million British thermal units to 279.94 baht.
A one-baht change in gas prices per BTU translates into an Ft change of 4-6 satang per kilowatt hour.
As well, the baht slightly appreciated from 32.05 to the US dollar for the May-August period to 32.14 baht during May 1-31. Moreover, local lignite coal increased by 0.63% to 5,939 baht per tonne from 5,887 baht.
“All of these factors should have translated into higher power bills,” he said.
The ERC said power demand during the September to December period is set to rise by 5.74% to 62.04 billion kilowatt-hours.
Natural gas still makes up the largest proportion of the country’s power generation at 60.5% while electricity purchased from Laos represents 14%. Lignite and imported coal account for 9.57% and 6.94%, respectively.
The ERC estimates that the feed-in tariff for state utilities purchasing power from renewable operators during the same period will total 15.7 billion baht, up from 15 billion in the previous period.