PEA PLANS BT10 BN ENERGY PROJECTS

       The Provincial Electricity Authority will spend Bt10 billion on alternative-energy projects via its upcoming wholly owned PEA Encom subsidiary, in accordance with its five-year investment plan.
       PEA governor Adisorn Kiatchokewiwat yesterday said the state agency would register PEA Encom as a business on December 18. It will be a holding company for the expenditure.
       The PEA will also set up another subsidiary in which it will own not more than half, to start promising energy project with state and private agencies.
       The state agency will spend Bt10 billion on some projects, in accordance with its 2007-11 investment plan. One is the production of electricity from wood scraps at a cost of Bt8 billion.
       The project will start commercial production in 2011.
       The World Bank has already granted the PEA a soft loan for 30 per cent of the Bt8 billion.It carries low interest of 0.75 per cent with 20 years'repayment.
       The second project involves the installation of energy-savings equipment on road-light poles and other public light poles nationwide over three years for Bt2 billion, beginning next year.
       The PEa has shouldered more than Bt3 billion a year to generate electricity for road lights and public lights. The project will help the state agency save cost of Bt1 billion.
       The PEA itself has budgeted Bt500 million from 2007-11 to develop alternative-energy projects, including a wind-power project. It is now conducting a study on wind speed in the Northeast and the South and is expected to begin the construction of the project's first wind power plant in 2011.
       The other projects include establishment of 10 small hydropower plants, each with capacity of 200 kilowatts, and the installation of solar cells, each with capacity of 200kW, on the roofs on 12 PEA buildings.
       Another is the installation of 10,000 solar-cell sets on road-light poles nationwide, to pilot the use of solar cells, each with capacity of 40 watts, to generate electricity for road lights.
       Besides producing the substitute energy by its own, PEA has purchased energy from very small power producers (VSPPs). It has already purchased 297 megawatts from VSPP and is considering to buy additional 5,004MW.
       Adisorn said the Kingdom's electricity consumption expanded for the first time last month and at the rate of 2.5 per cent after a several consecutive months of decline, suggesting an economic recovery. Adisorn predicts power consumption will expand 1 per cent this year.
       Average power consumption dropped 3.1 per cent in the first eight months of the year.