"The investment is necessary, since two independent power producers cannot start operating their plants and supply electricity as planned," Egat governor Sutas Patamasiriwat said yesterday.
The second generator should start up in 2014 or 2015, when the country's power reserve is expected to fall to 9 per cent of installed capacity. The normal ratio is 15 per cent.
The two IPPs are Siam Energy, which has to relocate its 1.6gigawatt Bang Khla plant from Chachoengsao to Ayutthaya because of local resistance, and National Power Supply, which also faces local pressure to move its 600megawatt plant out of the same province.
An energy gap could emerge if economic growth goes beyond 4 per cent per year, Sutas said.
The new 800MW generator is part of Egat's plan to reduce supply risks, coupled with delaying the decommissioning of the Bang Pakong and Wang Noi plants and the construction of? two Bt20billion plants in Chana and Wang Noi with combined capacity of 1.6GW.
Altogether, this will increase the reserve from 9 per cent to 10 per cent, he said.
The second generator would be inside the existing facility at Bang Kruay in Nonthaburi, so this should not give rise to environmental concerns. Standard environmental measures will be taken and the piped naturalgas supply is sufficient to feed the new generator.
Yesterday, Egat held a commissioning ceremony for the first generator at the North Bangkok Power Plant, with Energy Minister Wannarat Charnnukul presiding.
The Bt17.4billion unit replaces the old generator decommissioned in 2005 under the Power Development Plan 200413. The combinedcycle plant has capacity of 704MW.
Wannarat believes that the operation will not have any adverse impact on the surrounding communities, as it is constructed according to an environmentalprotection plan, with constant monitoring of air quality within 5 kilometres of the site.
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