Experts urge fewer curbs on solar power
Deregulation ‘will boost renewables’
Energy experts have called for the deregulation of the solar rooftop industry, which is under strict government control.
The Thai Photovoltaic Industries Association (TPVA) said deregulation would encourage more people to install solar panels, which would lead to further development of renewable power.
That would create efficient power-generation and consumption, which would benefit the whole country, it said.
The TPVA said the number of businesses in Thailand that have installed solar panels is rising. They include factories and workplaces, state universities and state and private general hospitals.
Most generate power for themselves without demanding state utilities produce any backup power for them.
The TPVA said the rate charged to consumers during peak demand periods was 5 baht per kilowatt hour, but the power state utilities bought from solar farms cost only 4.12 baht per unit.
Producing power from a solar rooftop is cheaper. The association is encouraging consumers to switch to solar rooftop to generate power for their own use.
The more solar rooftop users there are, the faster the response to industry deregulation should be, according to the TPVA.
The TPVA’s chairman Dusit Kruagnam said the government should unlock the system by allowing businesses, state enterprises and households with solar rooftop settings to sell power surplus to state utilities.
He said the association is calling for the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) and the Metropolitan Authority (MEA) to buy surplus power from the rooftop programme without any conditions.
He said solar rooftop owners would be satisfied with any rate if the PEA and the MEA agree to buy back power from them as it would help make solar rooftop installations more viable and also help boost the development of green power.
Veeraphol Jirapraditkul, commissioner and spokesman of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said the number of solar rooftop owners registered with the ERC remain small with a combined power generating capacity of only 62 megawatts.
However, he believed the number of
solar rooftop owners could rise sharply as major building owners such as Thammasat University and Rangsit Plaza, the operator of Future Park Rangsit, have solar rooftop projects and are spearheading the trend.
Renewable power generating capacity
jumped to 7,000MW at the end of May, while another 2,200MW is under construction or about to come on stream.
Of the total, solar farm and rooftops account for 3,000MW, biomass at 2,873MW, biogas at 1,000MW and the rest comes from
wind farms.
Praipol Kumsap, an economist from Thammasat University and a former energy vice-minister, said state utilities would be affected by deregulation during the first phase, as experienced overseas.
In the United States and Germany, state utilities had to accept some adverse effects in the short run.
The change would create massive profits for the whole country in the long term, he added.