EEC/clean energy

Chatrudee Theparat

The Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) Office signed a memorandum of cooperation with five agencies to study the guidelines for supporting private power producers to supply clean energy or renewable energy to investment projects in EEC.

The EEC expected to reach a conclusion of the study before the end of the year and the private sector is ready to move ahead the construction of the power plant in a bid to supply clean energy to businesses in the EEC in 2026.

Chula Sukmanop, secretary general of the EEC Office, said that EEC has signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation with five agencies such as the Thai Renewable Energy (RE100) Association, Provincial Electricity Authority, The Association of Private Power Producers(APPP), and the Thailand Development Research Institute ( TDRI ) to study ways to support private power producers to distribute clean energy to business operators in the EEC through the new electrical grid system.

Mr Chula said the study will focus on relevant legal matters such as regulations for requesting permission to set up an electrical grid system, requesting to use land to build an electrical grid system.

He said various regulations and related issues are under the study focus including the cost of building a grid system, social cost and social benefit. The study will be a model for calculating the cost of building an electric grid system from clean energy in other areas.

The study will begin from August to November 2024, totalling 4 months. Later, the construction of a power plant will be implemented and projected to generate clean energy to supply to business operators in the EEC areas in 2026.

Veeradej Tejapaibul, president of the Thai Renewable Energy (RE 100) Association, said in the future renewable energy will become the main source of the global energy system. It will play an important role in driving the economy and creating stable and sustainable jobs

For Thailand, the country is taking a big step into the goal of net zero. To achieve it, however it needs 90% of renewable energy in the power development plan (PDP Plan 2024-2037). Under the PDP plan, it is required to generate a renewable energy of 50% or 30,000-40,000 megawatts.

“The plan is only a battery or electrical storage system of 10,000 megawatts, and it takes time 13-14 years which is considered too late. From the analysis, it found that if renewable energy is produced 30,000-40,000 megawatts, the battery storage will need to be increased 2-3 times which will require additional investment within 14 years from now or average per year 100 billion baht.”