More gas supply interruptions cause headaches for Egat

       Just one month after a gas pipeline leak touched off a chain of events that led to flooding in Kanchanaburi, supplies from two pipelines to power plants in the western and southern provinces were disrupted last weekend, with total damage estimated at 1 billion baht.
       The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) was again required to respond to the shortage of natural gas to power plants due to technical errors affecting pipelines from Burma's Yetagun field and the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area (JDA).
       Wirach Kanchanapibul, an Egat deputy governor, said the JDA pipeline was shut down for five hours from 10 am on Saturday and again for nine hours from 2 am on Sunday. The pipeline from Yetagun was shut for seven hours to 6.30 pm on Saturday, and on Sunday from 1.40 to 10.55 am.
       Egat executives declined to disclose the causes of the disruptions.
       The state power utility had to step up hydropower production after a gas pipeline leak in Kanchanaburi last month,and the subsequent release of water from the Srinakarin dam led to flooding in nearby communities.
       Natural gas from the JDA is the main fuel for the Chana power plant serving southern provinces, and Yetagun gas feeds the Ratchaburi plant, the country's largest, serving the western provinces.
       The weekend's natural gas shortages are estimated to have caused the loss of 2,000 megawatts or almost 10% of the country's electricity demand.
       Egat tackled the problem by increasing production from its Ratchaprapha plant to run at its 240 MW capacity to serve the southern provinces. It also bought 150 MW from Malaysia at two baht per kilowatt/hour higher than the normal five-baht rate.
       For the western network, Egat asked the operator of the Ratchaburi plant to use fuel-oil.
       There were no reports of flooding this time but the additional cost to Egat is expected to total 2.7 million baht.
       Chitrapongse Kwangsuksthit, chief operating officer of PTT Plc, the sole natural gas supplier, said the problem in the JDA did not originate in the pipeline but in a drifting gas rig operated by the Malaysian oil company Petronas.
       Piyasvasti Amranand, a former energy minister, said such incidents were unacceptable and measures to reduce the country's risk of blackouts are crucial.
       "Thai power users should have now learned to accept the truth that if you want to use cleaner fuel, you have to pay more," he said.
       Many other energy experts have warned that Thailand's dependence on gas for 70% of its power generation is dangerous in the long term.