Myanmar will close its Yadana gas field for annual maintenance from April 5 to 14, which will reduce by 25 per cent the amount of natural gas supplied to Thailand for electricity production.
On her Yingluck Government Meets the People weekly programme on NBT, Ms Yingluck said the Energy Ministry had made plans to ensure sufficient electricity supply during the period.
She assured people that there would be no blackouts on Friday, April 5, the day that consumption of electricity is expected to peak.
Authorities hope that any impact of power shortages will be limited as April 6 is the Chakri Day holiday, and the long Songkran break follows a few days later, so consumption by industry in particular will fall.
Maintenance work on a gas platform in Myanmar’s Yadana block in the Gulf of Martaban will cause a dip of 1.1 billion cubic feet of gas a day to Thailand. Gas from Myanmar accounts for a quarter of Thailand’s supply. Gas-fired power stations generate 70 per cent of Thailand’s power.
The prime minister said she had ordered all state offices to cut electricity use in order to help head off an energy crisis.
Quite why an annual maintenance programme should cause such a fluster this particular year is not clear, but members of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) appear to be taking the PM’s warnings seriously.
They were due to meet this week to discuss measures to deal with the possible energy shortage, FTI chairman Payungsak Chartsuthipol said.
The industrial sector is the largest power user in Thailand, accounting for about 40 per cent of overall consumption.
Mr Payungsak spoke after meeting with Energy Minister Pongsak Raktapongpaisal that it was agreed that manufacturers would temporary halt production lines on April 5. Production would resume on April 7, he said.
In addition, the FTI would ask for cooperation from manufacturers, particularly in the steel, cement and petrochemical sector, in cutting electricity usage in general, he added.
A meeting of manufacturers represented in the FTI would be held later this month to discuss progress in preparing energy saving measures, and plans for dealing with any crisis when Myanmar reduces its natural gas flow to Thailand, the FTI chief said.
Myanmar planned to reduce supply from its Yadana gas field to allow for scheduled maintenance on April 4. The Thai government asked for a postponement, warning of a power crisis because 70 per cent of the country’s electricity is generated by plants powered by natural gas.
The energy minister on Thursday said that Total E&P Myanmar, the operator of the Yadana gas field, had agreed to delay maintenance by one day, to April 5, which is the start of a long holiday weekend.
Mr Payungsak applauded the government for warning of a possible energy shortfall in advance, giving manufacturers time to plan for the situation.
He said the government needs to draw up both medium- and long-term plans to ensure the nation’s energy security.
This could include building backup electricity plants and reducing dependence on imported natural gas for electricity production.
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), too, is making plans for a shortfall. These include increasing electricity reserves to one gigawatt from 700 megawatts (MW) during the disruption in the supply from Myanmar.
Thana Putarungsi, Egat’s deputy governor for transmission systems, said to avert possible blackouts in Thailand from April 4-14, Egat will ask Malaysia to supply 200 MW of electricity.
Egat will also ask the operators of power plants fueled by bunker oil and diesel to go to maximum output, adding 30 MW on top of the current 1,400 MW, he said.
Mr Thana said Egat examined the electricity supply system and found that only 767 MW or 2 per cent of the total power reserve would be available during that April period, making a power outage possible.
Normally reserves of 10-15 per cent of the country’s generating capacity of 31,000 MW are available.
The supply disruption will mainly affect three power plants in western Thailand with a combined generating capacity of 6,000 MW. Egat projects power consumption will peak at 26,000 MW on April 5, when the temperature is forecast to be 36ºC.
He said Egat is planning to maximise output at two hydroelectric dams in western Thailand to generate another 5 MW. Small power producers such as Dan Chang Sugar Mill will also be asked to supply more power to the utility.
Egat will ask large private power users including Siam City Cement Plc, TPI Polene and Thai-Asahi to cut production during the peak hours of that period to save 65 MW.
One lone voice has been raised against all the preparations – that of Piyasvasti Amranand, Minister of Energy under the previous Democrat-led government.
Mr Piyasvasti pointed out that the Myanmar maintenance has been known about since last year. He criticised the Ministry of Labour for exaggerating the problem, and for meddling in plans for alternative energy sources which, he said, could have added at least a gigawatt of power.
There are suspicions that the Prime Minister’s warnings are part of a plan to put nuclear power in Thailand – placed on the back burner after the Fukushima reactor accident – back onto the agenda.
A long-standing plan for nuclear energy would see power stations being built in Surat Thani, Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Trat, Nakhon Sawan and Ubon Ratchathani provinces.
Phuket’s power comes mostly from a gas-fired power station in Surat Thani. Locally, there is also a hydroelectric power station at the Chieowlan reservoir, also in Surat Thani province, and a coal-fired power station in Krabi.
The Phuket News contacted the Provincial Electricity Authority in Bangkok (PEA – which distributes the power generated by Egat) to find out what effect the shortfall in Myanmar gas would have on Phuket.
An official there was unable to say. “We have to wait for the policy from the Ministry of Energy,” he explained.
– The Phuket News/Bangkok Post