According to the seventh NESDP (1992-1996), the government promoted the privatisation of the energy sector to reduce the investment burden of the government and to raise competition levels in the energy sector. The competition in the sector was expected to increase an efficiency in energy production and to ensure adequate energy at fair prices (Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board 1992). Correspondingly, the Independent Power Producer (IPP) and Small Power Producer (SPP) Scheme had drawn up by National Energy policy Council (NEPC) with the purpose to encourage the private sector to invest in the energy industry (Amornkosit 2007; Energy Policy and Planning Office 1999; Prasertsan & Sajjakulnukit 2006).
The distinction between IPP and SPP is that the SPP is either the power producer using cogeneration technologies or using renewable energy as a fuel, while IPP is the private enterprise producer of electricity selling to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), so IPP uses fossil fuels and operates on a larger scale (Energy Policy and Planning Office 1999; Srisovanna 2004). Energy Policy and Planning Office (EPPO) (1999, p. 2) defined SPPs as “…small power projects that are either co-
generators or facilities using renewable energy as fuel, which sell power to EGAT of not more than 90 MW for each project” . Therefore, the power plant using biomass as a fuel is classified as SPPs.
EGAT has conformed to this government privatisation policy well. EGAT (cited in National Energy Policy Office (2002)) announced the purchase of electricity from SPPs on 3 September 1996. At that early stage, (at December 1998) there were 57 SPP project
proposals accepted by EGAT of which 31 projects had already been implemented and sold 740 MW of electricity to the EGAT (Energy Policy and Planning Office 1999). Table 3.7 shows the SPP projects with proposals accepted by EGAT (at December 1998) classified by fuel type. At this stage, most electricity sold to EGAT was from fossil fuels such as natural gas. There were a number of projects using biomass energy such as bagasse, rice husk, wood and saw dust as fuels. However, their electricity generating capacities and the amount of power sold to the EGAT were much lower than that of the SPPs using fossil fuels.
Table 3.7 SPP project proposals accepted by EGAT (at December 1998)
Number of Projects Generating Capacity (MW) Sale to EGAT (MW) Commercial Energy Natural gas 23 2,988 1,678 Fuel oil 1 10 9 Coal 10 1,210 618 Sub Total 34 4,208 2,305 Renewable energy Bagasse 14 301 67.5
Rice husk, wood chips, saw dust 6 144.3 57 Municipal waste 1 3 1 Biogas 1 0.06 0.045 Black liquor 1 32.9 25 Sub Total 23 481 150 Total 57 4,689 2,455
Table 3.8 SPP projects accepted by EGAT (at November 2008)
Received Notification of
Acceptance Supplying Power to The Grid
Fuel Type No. Generating Sale No. Generating Sale
of Capacity to EGAT of Capacity
to EGAT Projects (MW) (MW) Projects (MW) (MW) 1. Non-Conventional Energy Bagasse 12 284.4 101.5 10 261.6 81.5 Rice husk 8 77.7 64.3 5 57.3 46.8
Rice husk, wood chip 2 57.8 49 2 57.8 49
Black liquor 1 32.9 25 1 32.9 25 Municipal waste 1 2.5 1 1 2.5 1 Waste gas 1 19 12 1 19 6
Bagasse, wood bark, rice
husk 3 115.4 64 3 107.7 64
Palm residue, cassava root 1 9.9 8.8 1 9.9 8.8
Rice husk, bagasse,
eucalyptus 4 187.8 107.8 1 3 1.8
Wood bark, wood chip,
Black liquor 1 87.2 50 1 75 50 Rubber wood chip 2 27.8 24.2 1 23 20.2
Bagasse, rice Husk,
biomass 2 37.5 26.5 2 37.5 26.5
Natural gas co-product of
crude oil 1 1.95 1.72 1 1.95 1.72 wind 1 60 60 0 0 0 total 40 1001.85 595.823 30 689.15 382.323 2. Commercial Energy Natural gas 41 4,852.50 3,169.20 21 2,319.11 1,465.20 Coal 4 392.2 196 4 392.2 196 Oil 1 10.4 9 1 10.4 9 total 46 5,255.10 3,374.20 26 2,721.71 1,670.20 3. Mixed Fuel
Waste gas from production
process / oil / coal 1 108 45 1 108 45 Black liquor / coal 1 40 8 1 40 8 Coal / eucalyptus bark 2 328 180 2 328 180
total 4 476 233 4 476 233
TOTAL 90 6,732.95 4,203.02 60 3,886.86 2,285.52
Due to the economic crisis in 1997, the government terminated the purchase of electricity from SPPs consuming commercial energy such as fossil fuels, which had to be imported. At this point, the SPPs using renewable energy, which are more beneficial to the country in terms of financial and environment, gained attention from the government (Amornkosit 2007). In 1999, the ENCON Fund allocated 2,060 millions baht to subsidize SPPs using renewable energy (National Energy Policy Office 2002; Srisovanna 2004). Also, the regulations for power purchases from SPPs had been improved to be of greater benefit to the SPPs using renewable energy (Amornkosit 2007; Kalayanamitr 2004). Since 1999, the number of SPPs using renewable has increased substantially (see Table 3.8 for the current SPPs accepted by EGAT).
As can be seen from Table 3.8, currently, the majority of electricity from SPPs sold to EGAT still comes from the SPPs using commercial energy such as natural gas, coal and oil. However, the number of the SPP project proposals using renewable energy accepted by EGAT has increased significantly from 23 (at December 1998, see Table 3.7) to 70 projects (at November 2008). The total electricity from renewable energy sold to EGAT has risen from 150 (in 1998) to 978 MW (in 2008). Within these SSPs projects (at November 2008), there are 13 power plants using only rice husk as a fuel which account for about 11 percent of the total power from renewable energy sold to EGAT. Moreover, there are 19 other projects using rice husk mixed with other biomass fuels. This indicates that over the last decade the use of rice husk as a fuel to generate electricity has been implemented on commercial scale.
Moreover, in 2002, the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) and the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA), which are under EGAT, announced that they would purchase power from Very Small Power Producers (VSPPs) to further support the efficient use of renewable energy by SPPs. The VSPP programme also aimed to distribute electricity generation to the rural areas and increase the public participation in power generation (Amornkosit 2007; Kalayanamitr 2004). The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) (2009) defines VSPP as a power producer that has a generation capacity lower than 10 MW; and is either a cogenerator or uses renewable
energy such as biogas, waste, biomass, wind and solar energy. The breakdowns of the recent VSPPs by fuel type are shown in Table 3.9.
Table 3.9 VSPP projects accepted by EGAT (at December 2008)
Proposals
submitted Proposals accepted
Projects under operations Fuel type/Technology No. of Sale to
EGAT No. of
Sale to
EGAT No. of
Sale to EGAT
Projects (MW) Projects (MW) Projects (MW)
Commercial 10 55.60 7 38.40 2 6 Coal 6 41.00 4 26.00 2 6.00 Natural gas 4 14.60 3 12.40 0 - Solar 355 1,681.621 116 362.824 45 1.754 Biogas 78 143.203 60 79.898 18 12.519 Animal manure 14 2.77 14 2.77 8 1.33 Waste water 52 133.19 36 71.84 10 11.19 Rice straw 5 1.44 5 1.44 0 - Others 7 5.81 5 3.86 0 - Biomass 175 1,050.095 140 808.845 47 216.145 Palm fibre 4 18.50 4 18.50 1 8.50 Jatropha residues 1 8.00 0 - 0 - Bagasse 37 217.80 34 195.80 23 127.30
Bagasse, rice husk 1 8.00 1 8.00 1 8.00
Rice husk 60 422.45 43 302.55 10 49.05
Rice husk, wood chips 7 49.50 6 48.00 1 8.00
Rice husk, corn cob 1 7.80 0 - 0 -
Saw dust 1 0.60 1 0.60 1 0.60 Coconut husk 4 21.15 4 21.15 0 - Maize residues 3 9.94 2 8.14 1 0.14
Corn cob, rice husk 2 13.40 1 5.40 0 -
Palm bunches 13 62.40 11 38.40 5 6.90 Wood bark 2 12.25 1 5.50 0 - Rice straw 3 1.46 3 1.46 3 1.46 Cassava residues 4 17.60 4 17.60 0 - Plantation wood 12 55.75 6 22.25 0 - Wood bark, wood chip 17 109.70 16 101.70 1 6.20 Others 3 13.80 3 13.80 0 - Waste 24 121.760 16 84.860 2 1.600 Landfill (Biogas) 8 20.01 5 9.16 2 1.60 Incineration (Steam turbine) 16 101.75 11 75.70 0 - Hydro power 9 6.855 4 5.130 2 0.060 Wind 89 791.13 7 10.93 1 0.08 Used oil 1 0.03 1 0.03 1 0.03 Total of renewable energy 731 3,794.69 344 1,352.51 116 232.18 Total 741 3,850.29 351 1,390.91 118 238.18
From Table 3.9, it is clearly seen that most projects are renewable energy based VSPPs. There are 1191 out of 1210 projects (about 98 percent of all) using renewable energy (these include the proposals submitted, the ones that had been accepted, and the ones that has already been implemented). Within the renewable energy based segment, the two main fuel sources are biomass and solar. The electricity sold to EGAT from the biomass based (including rice husk) accounts for 38.5 percent of the total power (sold to EGAT) produced from renewable energy, whereas the power produced from solar energy accounts for 38 percent of the total.
Within the biomass energy based VSPPs group, there are 113 projects using only rice husk as a fuel (out of the total of 362 biomass energy based projects). The electricity sold to EGAT from these rice husk energy based power plants all together accounts for about 37 percent of the power produced from biomass energy, or 14 percent of the total power sold to EGAT by all VSPPs. In addition, there are other 21 projects using rice husk together with other biomass fuels.
The numbers of all projects (including the ones that are operational, the ones that have been accepted and the ones with a proposal submitted) show an increasing trend for all fuel types. This implies that more VSPPs will be established in the future. In particular, the number of power producers using rice husk as a fuel has increased from 10 projects (already operational) to 43 projects (proposal accepted). More recently, 60 projects have submitted proposals. This clearly indicates that rice husk will be used more and more within the VSPP industry.
The National Energy Policy Office (2002) identified rice husk as the most feasible biomass fuel to use in power generation as it has a low moisture content, hence it can be converted to energy efficiently. Also, with its small size, there is no need for a size reduction process. Moreover, its high ash content was seen to be beneficial in other applications. Therefore, they suggested that rice husk was the most viable biomass fuel in terms of economics. However, they commented that there may be a problem gathering rice husk from different mills to feed the power plants with high a capacity, as most rice
mills in Thailand have a low milling capacity. Papong et al. (2004) reported that there were more than 40,500 rice mills around the country. Nonetheless, only 215 mills have capacities ranging from 100 to 2,000 tonnes per day. As the majority of rice mills have a low capacity, the husk has been used mostly in the very small scale power producers and it seems to be used more in the future.