Thailand: PTT plans lithium ion battery plant

Thailand: PTT plans lithium ion battery plant

Global Power Synergy Plc (GPSC), the energy business arm of national oil and
gas firm PTT Plc, is planning to develop a lithium ion battery factory worth
1 billion baht.

In the first phase of development, the project will be a joint venture with
a Japanese partner (whose name is yet to be confirmed) and will have a power
storage capacity of 100 megawatt-hours.

President Toemchai Bunnag said the production facility will probably be
located in the Eastern Economic Corridor and start operations before the end
of 2019.

In order to build the project, SET-listed GPSC will lease production
technology from a subsidiary, 24M Technologies.

GPSC already has an agreement on the licences and services needed to develop
the production facility in Thailand from 24M Technologies, an American
startup.

Battery production is first expected to meet demand for power storage units
in the power sector, rather than in the electric vehicle sector, he said.

Policymakers will let owners of solar rooftops sell their leftover power to
state utilities in the fourth quarter, but the programme won't be fully
implemented until next year.

Mr Toemchai said GPSC is conducting a feasibility study for the solar panel
business and energy storage units, as the company plans to diversify into
solar rooftops going forward.

"Solar rooftops are not efficient at night time, but have the capacity to
increase their efficiency if they are coupled with energy storage
solutions," he said.

GPSC also plans to partner with a leading property developer in Thailand.
Details of the partnership will be announced by year-end.

GPSC expects revenue this year to grow by 5.3% to 21.8 billion baht, up from
20.7 billion in 2016.

Revenue growth will be propelled by the operation of additional power
plants, which will produce a combined 377 megawatts.

Power plants added this year include the 117MW Bang Pa-In Industrial
Corporate plant, the 240MW IRPC Clean Power facility, and the Ichinoseki
Solar Power Generation Project 1 in Japan (20MW).

Mr Toemchai said the additional capacity going up this year will bring the
company's total to 1,742MW.

GPSC also has two hydropower plants on hand in Laos that are under
development and are expected to be operational by 2019.

The Lao facilities are the Nam Lik Hydro Power Plant (65MW) and the Xayaburi
Hydro Power Plant (1,285MW), Mr Toemchai said.

GPSC shares closed yesterday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 40 baht,
up 25 satang, in trade worth 136 million baht.

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Link to Original Article:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/1322563/ptt-plans-lithium-ion-batte
ry-plant

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com




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