Thailand cuts energy consumption

BANGKOK, April 5 (TNA) - As neighbouring Myanmar suspends its gas supply to Thailand from April 5-14 for maintenance of its gas wells, several Thai provinces have prepared measures and launched public campaigns on conserving energy consumption, as part of the government's policy on encouraging all sectors in the country to save energy on a sustainable basis. In response to the government policy, public agencies in 12 districts of Pichit province in the Lower Thai North are cutting their energy consumption, at least during the April 5-14 period, by turning off lights and raising temperatures of their air conditioners to 26 degrees Celsius, an energy saving level advised by authorities concerned. Some office buildings have even agreed to turn off their air conditioners one hour ahead of the end of their office hours, while local households have also been encouraged to help cut energy consumption, as Pichit has targeted to reduce provincial power consumption by 10 per cent. In Lamphun province in the Upper Thai North, the provincial governor has launched a public campaign on energy conservation, in which all local public and private agencies, as well as the general public are urged to join by, for instance, turning off unnecessary lights at the Provincial Hall and other places. In Chiyabhum province in the Thai Northeast, local cooking gas operators and retailers have stocked up gas for a feared shortage of the cooking gas during the 10-day period and have raised their gas prices up by 50-70 baht per tank. In Krabi province in the Thai South, over 90 per cent of local hotels have also stocked up fuel and have put in place, as a precaution, their reserved power generating devices in case of any blackout during the gas suspension from Myanmar. Krabi's power authority, however, confirmed that the gas suspension by Myanmar will not affect local consumers, as provincial power plants can produce sufficient electricity to meet local demand. Meanwhile, Associated Professor Prasert Rerkkriangkrai, chief of the Energy Research and Development Institute-Nakornping or ERDI under Chiang Mai University in the Thai North, and his team have publicly announced the ERDI's success in developing a biogas technology for over 1,000 cattle farms nationwide so that they can produce the alternative energy for electricity generating. According to the ERDI chief, a total of 1,062 cattle farms across the country have participated in the project, under which about 170 megawatts of electricity can be generated from 676,399,572 cubic metres of biogas. To maintain national energy security during Myanmar's 10-day gas suspension, the ERDI chief said, the participating farms have been urged to produce electricity from biogas. The ERDI chief acknowledged that biogas filling stations will be available nationwide in the future, like those of natural gas for vehicles (NGV) and liquefied petroleum gas or LPG stations. (TNA)