Thailand: New energy code due soon

Thailand: New energy code due soon

The Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency (DEDE) is
monitoring energy consumption of large buildings more closely, particularly
newly constructed ones, to ensure they comply with the efficient power
consumption standards due to be regulated soon.

Komol Buaket, DEDE director of energy regulation and conservation bureau,
said the building energy code (BEC) for large structures is scheduled to be
implemented in the second quarter of next year.

The department defines large buildings as those with total usage areas of
more than 10,000 square metres; buildings with a power meter capacity of
more than 1,175 kilovolt-amperes (DVA); and buildings that consume more than
20 million megajoules a year.

The BEC is an international power consumption standard that has been adopted
by Thailand since 2013. It prescribes the amount of power that should be
used in buildings as well as approaches that help reduce heat, such as
having plants in green areas, to reduce temperature and power consumption.

For old buildings, the owners or property management firms must report their
annual energy consumption reports to the energy auditor every year to ensure
that the new BEC rules are fair to owners of both old and new buildings, Mr
Kamol said.

He said the DEDE has trained more than 170,000 energy auditors for the BEC
since 2007.

Praphon Wongtharua, DEDE director-general, said he expects the BEC to cover
about 100 new large buildings. Each building is expected to consume more
than 6 million kilowatt hour a year, which the BEC would be expected to cut
by 10%.

The BEC was first implemented in 2013, starting from buildings of state
agencies, and has helped reduced energy consumption substantially.

Meanwhile, the DEDE has allocated a 4.3-billion-baht budget from the Energy
Conservation Fund to support energy-saving measures and increase efficient
energy consumption in buildings and factories to 2019.

Some 3.5 billion baht of the total budget will be provided through 11
commercial banks for working capital under a soft loan programme, while
another 800 million would be set aside as a part project finance and part
subsidy of energy-saving equipment in buildings.

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Link to Original Article:
http://property.bangkokpost.com/news/1292775/new-energy-code-due-soon

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com