Thailand: BCPG starts 'community' solar farms

Thailand: BCPG starts 'community' solar farms

BCPG Plc, the power arm of SET-listed Bangchak Petroleum Plc (BCP), has
started commercial operations of two solar farms under the government's
scheme for solar farms development with local agriculture cooperatives.

The two solar farms have a combined power-generating capacity of seven
megawatts.

President and chief executive Bundit Sapianchai said BCPG was the first
company among those that won the draw on April 26 to develop solar farms
with local agricultural cooperatives to commence operations according to
schedule.

"We started operations on Dec 23 and the power plants will help generate
revenue for local communities," he said.

The project was done via BCPG's subsidiary, Bangchak Solar Energy Co
(Prachinburi). The first solar farm is in Ang Thong province with
power-generating capacity of 5MW and the other is in Ayutthaya province with
a capacity of 2MW.

The two solar farms were approved by the Board of Investment (BoI) and have
been granted an eight-year tax exemption.

The two solar farms have a power purchasing agreement with the Electricity
Generating Authority of Thailand with a feed-in tariff rate of 5.66 baht per
kilowatt hour for 25 years.

BCPG posted a total revenue of 2.33 billion baht for the first nine months
of 2016, up 3.1% from the year-earlier period as new projects in Japan began
generating revenue.

Profit in the January-September period fell by 25% year-on-year to 1.21
billion baht.

At the end of September, the aggregate contracted commercial supply of
projects in Kagoshima, Kumamoto, Miyazaki and most recently in Akita rose to
19MW.

The aggregate 118MW contracted capacity from solar power plants in Thailand
will continue to generate regular and stable revenue, Mr Bundit said.

For the Akita project, the BCPG group sold a total 8.8MW of commercial
supply to Tohoku Electric Power Co Ltd under a 20-year feed-in tariff power
supply contract, which increased revenue from Japanese operations by 144%
compared with the previous quarter.

BCPG shares closed yesterday on the SET at 13.70 baht, unchanged, in trade
worth 51.1 million baht.

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Link to Original Article:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1169797/bcpg-starts-community-solar
-farms

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com