Thailand is jump-starting a decades-old plan to create a South-east Asia electricity super-grid, and wants to be the power-trading hub at the centre of it, The Straits Times reported.
In fact, according to Wattanapong Kurovat, Director-General of the country’s Energy Policy and Planning Office, 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.
The moves are part of Energy Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong’s efforts to make Thailand’s power system cleaner, cheaper and more efficient.
“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,” said the report.
In another interview in Bangkok, Wattanapong commented: “We’re trying to move quickly to become the centre of the region’s power grid. We already have the capacity and the infrastructure to support the vision to become the regional hub.”
