POWER PLAY
Refunds on home meter deposits
The fuel tariff rate will be kept steady until August as the regulator wants to protect the struggling economy.
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) announced yesterday it will maintain the fuel tariff (Ft) rate at 3.64 baht per kilowatt-hour for May to August, keeping the rate stable for 20 months, to protect the struggling economy.
Power bills are normally revised every four months in line with the movement of fuel prices, baht exchange rates and consumption demand.
ERC secretary-general Khomgrich Tantravanich said the Ft rate has been stable since January 2019 at 3.64 baht.
“The economy is suffering from instability because of the pandemic, so the ERC decided to maintain the rate for another four months,” he said.
Mr Khomgrich said the ERC expects to allocate 5.12 billion baht to manage the Ft rate for May-August.
Part of the budget will come from the ERC’s power regulation and management budget from the previous year for the three state power utilities: the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat), the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) and the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA).
“This budget will be managed temporarily to support the Ft rate in the second half of this year,” he said.
ERC is also planning to refund deposits made by households or small businesses with a capacity of 5-15 amperes that were paid to PEA or MEA to connect to the state grid.
The deposit for electricity meter costs range from 300-2,000 baht each. Medium and large buildings with a capacity of 30-40 amperes that cost 4,000-6,000 baht will remain unchanged.
The PEA and MEA will repay the deposits made for February to each property by early March. Some 21.5 million homes and small businesses are expected to be eligible for the refund, totalling around 30 billion baht in value.
Mr Khomgrich said ERC and other utility bodies will finalise ways to reduce power tariffs by another 3% this month, in line with government stimulus measures to curb living expenses while the contagion persists.
The ERC forecasts the country’s electricity demand during May-August at 69.921 billion kWh, up 6.38% from January-April this year.
Over this period, natural gas demand is estimated to drop 3.5% to 263.2 baht per million British thermal units, bunker oil will drop 0.25% to 18.29 baht per litre, diesel is predicted to rise 0.13% to 22.66 baht per litre and imported coal will go up 16.6% to 2,488 baht per tonne.
This budget will be managed temporarily to support the Ft rate in the second half of this year. KHOMGRICH TANTRAVANICH Secretary-general, ERC