Thailand: TPCH says power plants untouched by flooding

Thailand: TPCH says power plants untouched by flooding

MAI-listed TPC Power Holding (TPCH), a subsidiary of Thai Polycons Plc, says
its five renewable power plants in the South have remained intact amid the
region's worst flooding in 30 years.

Managing director Cherdsak Wattanavijitkul said TPCH has two biomass power
plants in Nakhon Si Thammarat province that are still operating and three
biomass power plants in the deep South that are under construction.

"All five projects are running as usual, since we built them to be able to
tolerate such storms and floods," said Mr Cherdsak.

TPCH has four additional biomass power plants with a combined generating
capacity of 40 megawatts -- Changrak Bio Power, Maewong Energy, Mahachai
Green Power and Thung Sung Green.

The company plans to start developing 11 more plants this year and next,
with a combined power generating capacity of 132MW.

TPCH was awarded licences from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to
develop new renewable energy projects with a combined power generating
capacity of 72MW, he said.

Those projects are: Suchas Pattani Green Co, TPC Power 1, TPC Power 2 and
TPC Power 5.

In late 2016, TPCH spent 305.9 million baht to acquire a 45% share of Siam
Power Co, which is developing a waste-to-energy project with a capacity of
8MW in Nonthaburi. That project is expected to start commercial operations
in 2018.

TPCH has recently revised its total renewable power generating capacity to
350MW by 2020, up from 200MW.

Its target was increased after inking a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on
the potential development of a mini-hydro power plant in Laos with power
generating capacity of 80MW.

The details of that project are due to be released early this year, when
negotiations are concluded.

"With the construction expertise of our parent company, Polycon, we expect
to keep costs under control while developing the project," said Mr Cherdsak.

He said TPCH expects to add 50MW in new capacity annually from this year to
2020.

"The acquisition of shares in Siam Power will boost our experience in
waste-to-energy projects more quickly than if we had started developing a
new greenfield project," said Mr Cherdsak.

He added Siam Power may have other waste-to-energy projects to develop,
adding up to 50MW over the next three years.

While TPCH has invested greatly to increase its power generating capacity,
it does not need to raise capital as it has up to 600 million baht of
funding left over from its initial public offering, said Mr Cherdsak.

He added that additional capacity would come from renewable energy such as
biomass, waste-to-energy and hydropower projects.

TPCH shares closed yesterday on the Market for Alternative Investment at
18.60 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 22 million baht.

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Link to Original Article:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1181501/tpch-says-power-plants-unto
uched-by-flooding

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com