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Published on October 20, 2007

Twenty power-generation bids had been submitted to the Energy Policy and Planning Office when the deadline passed yesterday, with a combined proposed capacity of 17,000 megawatts.

The authorities are awarding only 3,200MW to independent power producers (IPPs) in this bidding round, which means the proposed capacity is 5.3 times above the demand. The IPPs will supply the power during 2012-2014.

"The interest is overwhelming, as this is only the second IPP bidding since 1992. Meanwhile, regionally, Thailand's power demand has shown a high growth rate. Moreover, our criteria are based on international standards," said Viraphol Jirapraditkul, director-general of the office.

The bidders propose to use natural gas and coal as fuels. In the bids, they also cited the potential sites of the power plants, but the office has not yet revealed them.

Bidders started to arrive at the office at 6am yesterday, well before the office opened for the bids at 9am. As shown in the list of bidders, key energy companies have submitted tenders, including Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding which teams up with KPIC Netherlands, Kansai Electric Power and Sumikin Bussan Corp. Loxley joins hands with Babcock & Brown. Others include Sumitomo Corp, Amata Power, Chubu Electric Power, Toyota Tsusho Corp, Glow Hemaraj Energy, Italian-Thai Development, Gheco-one, Gateway Power, Thaioil Energy and National Power Supply.

IRPC was not on the list. The company in August faced heavy pressure from residents in Rayong, who are against the company's plan to use coal as fuel.

While the IPPs revealed their generating techniques and financial aspects in the bids, in the next stage the subcommittee chaired by Viraphol will today set the approval procedure.

"First, the bids will be reviewed on techniques, which include technology. Then, if passing the technical criteria, they will go through the financial criteria. The procedure should be completed by December, when we will make the public announcement," he said.

Viraphol said the bidders would come under the same set of criteria, whether they propose to use natural gas or coal as the fuel. All the bids will be considered in a single process. Any bidder that cannot pass the criteria will be dropped from the list, and if any new bidding round is opened later they will have to submit new bids.

Importantly, the winners must pass an environmental impact assessment or they cannot sign contracts. The proposals must be submitted to the National Environment Policy and Planning Office by November 19. Approval must come by September of next year.

In the first round of IPP bidding, 89 companies bid for the generating of 5,943MW and seven companies won the bids. They proposed combined capacity of 39,000MW.

Energy Reporters

 The Nation