Jan. 21--In an attempt to increase private investment, invitations for bids by small power producers (SPPs) of 2,000 megawatts will be made later this year, which is earlier than scheduled, according to the Office of the Energy Regulatory Commission.

Pornchai Rujiprapa, the permanent secretary of the Energy Ministry, said new output from SPPs was expected to be ready three years earlier than scheduled. The required output is 1,985.5 MW.

The energy policymaker previously planned to see SPPs start construction in 2010 and complete their plants by 2016.

Under the new timetable, the bidding process will finish several months ahead of schedule as plants should start construction in early 2010 and all SPPs should be ready to start operation in 2013.

Mr Pornchai said the rescheduling was initiated in order to comply with the government's policy, which is pushing infrastructure projects to increase liquidity and jobs.

Even though the slow economy will trim power demand -- the nation's power development plan (PDP) has already reduced its demand projection to 2 percent from 4 percent -- all independent power producer projects were delayed by at least one year to make room for small producers.

The National Energy Policy Council approved the revised SPP plan last Monday, as the Electricity Generating Authority (Egat) agreed to delay the operation date of its power plants, as well as its plan to buy electricity from Laos.

"We considered that small power plants would take a short time to build with far lower output that could be taken up easily in spite of slow demand growth," said Mr Pornchai.

"It can be considered infrastructure, but rather than let the government increase its expenditures on these projects, we can encourage the private sector to invest in these megaprojects instead."

He said 104 billion baht would be required by these small power project operators. This capital is estimated to be gradually injected into the economic system between 2010 to 2011.

According to revised the PDP, each SPP project needs to be limited to less than 100 MW. SPPs will contribute 26.5 MW this year and another 90 MW next year, 250 MW in 2011, 989 MW in 2012 and 630 MW in 2013.

The new 2,000-MW capacity will consist of 141.5 MW from renewable fuels and the rest from mainstream fuels such as coal and natural gas. All of the power generators are strictly required to use high efficiency co-generation technology.

Thailand currently has 14 SPP plants operating nationwide with total output of 2,079.1 MW.

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