Thailand prepares for temporary gas supply suspension from JDA in mid-2014

BANGKOK, April 22 (TNA) - The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is asking the private sector to reduce electricity consumption to prevent a blackout in the Thai South due to the upcoming natural gas supply disruption from the Thailand-Malaysia Joint Development Area (JDA), set in mid-2014. ERC Chairman Direk Lavansiri told journalists on Tuesday that the gas supply from the A18 block in the JDA will be suspended for 28 days, from June 13 to July 10, 2014, for maintenance and overall natural gas supplies to Thailand will then drop by about 420 million cubic feet per day. Consequently, Direk acknowledged, the 710-megawatt Chana power plant in Thailand's southern Songkhla Province is to stop its generation, which will affect electricity supplies in southern Thailand, where power demand normally outnumbers supply. According to the ERC chair, during the 28-day gas supply disruption, electricity generation in southern Thailand will drop to 2,306 megawatts, while the average demand peak in the region stands at 2,400 megawatts; so, electricity supplies in the Thai South will be at risk in its normal peak time from 6:30pm to 10:30pm and if the southern Thai region reaches its power demand peak at 2,543 megawatts, the region will face another period of power supply risk from 1:30pm to 3:30pm. The ERC chair noted that the ERC has instructed the state-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) to prepare measures to cope with the power situation and asked industrialists to cut their power consumption during the period. Chen Namchaisiri, Vice president of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), told reporters, meanwhile, that the FTI will help ask industrialists in the Thai South, including those in hotel, fishery, ice production, department store, canned food, sawmill, rubber production, university, feed, quarry and cement businesses, to reduce their electricity consumption during the two risky supply periods from Mondays to Saturdays during the gas disruption time, assessing that the measure should then cut power consumption in the Thai South by 200-300 megawatts. (TNA)