Thailand: BCPG allots B60bn for five years

Thailand: BCPG allots B60bn for five years

BCPG Plc, the power business arm of SET-listed Bangchak Petroleum Plc (BCP),
has set aside a five-year investment budget (2017-22) of 60 billion baht to
be spent on power generation and expansion abroad.

President and chief executive Bundit Sapianchai said 10 billion baht would
be used next year, mostly on renewable energy projects overseas, including
wind farm and solar projects.

"The targeted countries that BCPG expects to invest and expand in are
Taiwan, the Philippines and South Korea as they have strong potential with
substantial room for renewable energy business to grow," said Mr Bundit.

He said the projects the company expects to commence early next year involve
renewable energy and energy storage.

For wind farm projects, BCPG plans to start investing in all three
countries.

The company plans to invest in developing a power storage business to help
store renewable power in batteries, which would serve its
electricity-generating business.

"The energy storage project will be a joint venture with our partner in
Korea," said Mr Bundit. He declined to give further details about energy
storage or wind farm projects to be developed abroad.

BCPG has total power-generating capacity of 300 megawatts, which is expected
to rise to 1,000MW by 2020.

Mr Bundit said BCPG has a new project scheduled to start commercial
operation by the end of this year with power-generating capacity of 12MW,
making total power generation in Thailand rise to 182MW by the end of this
year.

It has another project in Japan with 26MW of capacity that is due for
completion this year, he said.

"By next year, BCPG's power generation in Thailand and Japan should both
rise to 200MW," said Mr Bundit.

Locally, the company expects to be granted a new licence to develop solar
farms for agricultural cooperatives via the government's new round of bids
totalling 519MW of capacity.

With a substantial rise in investment abroad, Mr Bundit expects the
company's revenues to be split evenly from home and overseas next year.

"The company has been focusing on investment overseas as there are
substantial opportunities to grow there, but we are also continuing our
expansion here in Thailand as the government has issued several policies to
support renewable energy," he said.

Total revenue this year may not reach its target of 3 billion baht because
of rising development costs in Japan that would cut revenue by around 300
million baht, said Mr Bundit.

However, revenue should reach 3 billion next year because of rising
power-generating capacity, he said.

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Ref:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1113749/bcpg-allots-b60bn-for-five-
years

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com