Thailand: Egat fires up coal plant plans

Thailand: Egat fires up coal plant plans

The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) says it will launch
a new environmental and health impact assessment (EHIA) for the planned
coal-fired power plant in Krabi and an environmental impact assessment (EIA)
for its deep-sea port within three months.

The studies will take two years to complete and cause further delays in
developing the facilities, said Egat governor Kornsit Pakchotanon.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha scrapped the previous EHIA earlier this
month and ordered Egat to conduct a new one with greater input from nearby
communities.

Mr Kornsit said Egat plans to hire a different consulting firm to conduct
the latest impact assessments for the 800-megawatt power plant and the
deep-sea port, to be located near the plant in the coastal province.

Bidding to conduct the assessments will be opened soon, he said.

After the new EHIA and EIA are completed, construction will start around
2024, several years later than the previous 2021 deadline.

The plans were announced a day after Egat moved to silence environmental
activists with a criminal defamation lawsuit against 15 people.

Egat used the Computer Crime Act, claiming in the suit that the 15 had
posted online material that Egat's power plants are sources of pollution
which can cause sicknesses and death, and that Egat wants to build
coal-fired power plants without regard for the people's health.

The move was seen as an attempt to mute critics of the plans to put a
coal-fired power plant on the Krabi beach.

Before that, senior officials from the Energy Ministry and Egat flew
reporters to Japan to see a so-called "clean coal" in use at the Matsuura
thermal power station in Nagasaki Prefecture. They said the Japanese
operation proved successful coexistence of the power plant and the
environment.

Mr Kornsit said that while there have been some concerns and requests from
protesters and the opposition to switch from coal to gas, the change would
not be easy to make.

He said if the policymakers eventually decided on gas over coal, Egat would
need to develop not only a new power plant in the province, but also a gas
pipeline, gas receiving terminal and floating gas storage unit - at a
significant cost.

Mr Kornsit said there are no new gas fields in the Andaman Sea, while
Thailand's gas supply in the Gulf of Thailand is depleting sharply, making
the country even more reliant on imported gas.

Moreover, the facilities for the gas-fired power plant, including the gas
pipeline, would cause more damage to the marine ecosystem than the
coal-fired plant, he said.

Regarding development of another 2,000MW coal-fired power plant, expected to
be built in Thepa district in Songkhla province, he said operations are
likely to be delayed to 2023, pushed back from 2022, as the land
expropriation process has lagged.

In order to seek ways to prevent possible blackouts and power shortages in
the southern region due to delays of the planned coal-fired power plants,
Egat is running a project to extend high-voltage power transmission lines
from the Thailand's Central Plains or Malaysia, in the event the country
needs to buy more power from its southern neighbour. The extension would
transmit 700MW of power to the southern region.

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Link to Original Article:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1214625/egat-fires-up-coal-plant-pl
ans

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com