Two contenders bid for new coal-fired power project in Thai South

KRABI, THAILAND, August 5 (TNA) - Two consortia, including Chinese, European, Japanese and Thai companies, bid for the construction contract of a 800-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Krabi Province in the Thai South. The state-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) organized the bidding contest in Bangkok on Wednesday and the two of 12 interested international joint ventures, which had bought bidding terms, showed up to tender their technical and quotation bids. The two are the consortium of POWERCHINA and Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited (ITD) and the ALSTOM Thailand-Marubeni Corporation consortium. Representatives of Japan's Mitsubishi Corp, which had earlier planned to join the contest, showed up only for observation. Ratanachai Namwong, EGAT Deputy Governor for Power Plant Development, told journalists that the bidding winner will be announced within four months, but the construction of the new coal-fired power plant must wait for its environmental health impact assessment (EHIA). Ratanachai said the median price of the new coal-fired power project is set at about 49 billion baht, stressing that the construction contract will be signed after the National Environmental Board approves its EHIA and the government gives a green light for the construction to begin. The EGAT deputy governor admitted that the coal-fired power project has worried local people, but insisting that its environmental protection measures have been designed to be better than the government's standard. Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha on Tuesday called for both supporters and opponents of new coal-fired power plants to use rationale, rather than emotions. The Thai prime minister made the call after confronting an opposition by people in the planned construction of coal-fired power plants in southern Thailand. The Thai premier pledged that his government will do the best for people and the nation, explaining that as long as an EHIA and an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) are not carried out, the construction of the new coal-fired power plants cannot be done. (TNA)