Electricity Generating Plc (Egco), the power generation arm of Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, plans to spend 30 billion baht on growing its power business this year by increasing capacity by 1 gigawatt.
Additional capacity of 250 megawatts is projected from various new projects, including wind farms in Taiwan and the US, which would start commercial operations this year, said Thepparat Theppitak, president of Egco Group.
In Taiwan, 22 new wind turbines operated by Yunlin Holding GmbH are slated to generate 44MW of electricity. Egco is a major shareholder with a 25% stake in Yunlin Holding.
In the US, the company expects an additional 44MW from a new wind farm run by Apex Clean Energy. Egco holds a 17.4% stake in Apex Clean Energy.
Mr Thepparat said the investment in Apex Clean Energy promises good business prospects for Egco, which aims to focus more on renewable energy development.
The remaining 750MW would come from Egco's plan to acquire new power generation assets based on both fossil fuels and renewable energy.
“We are planning to conduct due diligence reviews for several projects in order to achieve the goal of 1GW added capacity in 2023." said Mr Thepparat.
Egco continues to seek new business opportunities in alternative energy development. Among them is a plan to conduct a feasibility study on a small modular nuclear power reactor to generate electricity.
It also wants to join hands with new business partners to use hydrogen as a new source for power generation to support its carbon dioxide reduction campaign.
The company aims to achieve a carbon neutrality goal by 2050.
For the oil transport segment, Egco is preparing to transport oil from Saraburi to Khon Kaen through its partially owned Thai Pipeline Network (TPN) Co, a provider of oil pipeline transport services to northeastern Thailand and oil depot services.
The pipeline, with a carrying capacity of 5.4 billion litres, is scheduled to operate between April and May this year.
TPN was awarded a 20-year contract for oil transport, which can be extended by another two periods, each lasting 10 years.
Source : Bangkok Post
March 30, 2023
