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Thailand eyes new status as Southeast Asia’s energy trading hub
- By buying electricity from Laos, which generates more than it needs, Thailand would then have excess power to sell to Malaysia, Cambodia and Myanmar
- The idea of connecting the region’s power plants and customers has been pursued for decades, but stymied by a lack of coordination and funds
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Thailand is jump starting a decades-old plan to create a Southeast Asia electricity supergrid, and wants to be the power-trading hub at the centre of it.
The nation is set to triple the amount of electricity from Laos that it resells to Malaysia, while encouraging infrastructure upgrades stretching from Cambodia to Myanmar necessary for cross-border power trading, said Wattanapong Kurovat, director general of the country’s energy policy and planning office. The moves are part of Energy Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong’s efforts to make Thailand’s power system cleaner, cheaper and more efficient.
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The trade is simple, Wattanapong said. Thailand would buy more electricity for its own national grid from Laos, which generates more than it needs from dams along the Mekong River and its tributaries. It would then have excess power in its own national grid that it could sell into Malaysia, Cambodia or Myanmar.
“We’re trying to move quickly to become the centre of the region’s power grid,” Wattanapong said in an interview in Bangkok. “We already have the capacity and the infrastructure to support the vision to become the regional hub.”
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The idea of connecting power plants and customers across Southeast Asia has been pursued for more than 20 years, but stymied by issues including lack of government coordination and infrastructure funding.
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