SET-listed power producer lays the foundation for rapid expansion
Thailand’s first SET-listed private power producer, Electricity Generating Plc (Egco), recently announced it had set aside a whopping 61.5 billion baht for the three years from 2015 to 2018 to develop new plants and expand the capacity of their current operations.
The company has ambitious plans, both within Thailand, regionally, and further afield to strengthen its overall position across all forms of power generation.
According to Sahust Pratuknukul, the president of Egco, the company expects to bring nine power plants into operation between January 2015 and 2019. These nine plants will have a combined capacity of 1,613 megawatts.
Of these, six will be within Thailand and will provide an additional 510 megawatts of power output. The three biggest of these Thai-based plants are the gas-fired Khanom plant in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, which will have its ageing power generators rebuilt, the Hat Yai municipality heat-waste power plant and a wind farm in Chaiyaphum, the latter two being new projects.
Regionally, Egco has involvement in a hydropower plant in Xayaburi province in Laos and the San Buenaventura Power Company in the Philippines. Elsewhere, Egco is engaged in the Boco Rock Wind Farm in Australia.
The Egco president has also said his company has potential investments in three other projects in Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. He claimed Egco was in a strong financial position and could easily commit to all three projects if their negotiations came to fruition.
Of the three potential projects, the one which excites the company the most in terms of its long-term potential is the expansion of the BLCP Power Limited coal-fired plant at the Map Ta Phut industrial area in Rayong province.
Egco is hoping to expand the capacity of the BLCP plant from 1000 megawatts to 1,400 megawatts, depending on the release of national development plans by the Energy Ministry. The Egco president said if the Energy Ministry gives priority to coal-powered plants then the company will proceed with the upgrade and expansion.
In June 2014 Egco took stakes in the Masinloc coal-fired plant in the Philippines and a Star Energy Geothermal plant in Indonesia. They are engaged in a study to see if the expansion plans in those projects are commercially viable, and if they receive government approval, then Egco is prepared to increase its capital expenditure in them.
Egco is still seeking new investments to ensure its long-term revenue growth, especially as a number of its contracts with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) have gradually expired and the management do not know if their contracts will be renewed.
Egco is also eyeing a potential investment in Myanmar’s Dawei megaproject alongside Italian-Thai Development Plc, Thailand’s largest construction firm, for a 300-megawatt gas-fired power plant, but is awaiting approval from the Myanmar government.
