Aug. 1--The Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) expects the capital's power consumption this year will shrink by 4 percent to 40,500 million kilowatt/hours (units) due to the economic slowdown, says governor Pornthape Thunyapongchai.

The governor forecast the utility's net profit would fall 2.1 percent to 4.6 billion baht. However, sales would rise 3.7 percent to 138 billion baht from 133 billion last year.

He said the bottoming out of power demand would be unlikely this year because it had been dropping since early this year in the utility's service areas including Bangkok, Nonthaburi and Samut Prakan.

"Previously we thought the floor would be in the fourth quarter of this year, but demand has kept dropping, so now we think the drop will be sustained throughout the year and the floor may be in the first quarter next year."

Factory closures and industrial production cuts do not help the outlook.

He said power demand had dropped 10 percent since January, and even though the situation improved a little in June, consumption still declined year-on-year as demand slowed to single-digit growth.

Non-core business revenue of the MEA this year also decreased 17 percent to 580 million baht from 700 million a year earlier. Its non-core units include a power consulting service, power equipment maintenance and advertising income, which it receives from allowing clients to put ads on its power bills.

The MEA implemented a cost-reduction programme and cut its investment budget to offset the sales drop.

"We talked to our contractors about rescheduling construction bill payments and we have more than 10 contracts. We succeeded in rescheduling one contract that cut to 8 billion baht from 24 billion the repayment for this year," he said.

The economic slowdown has affected its 100-billion-baht investment plan as well, particularly the underground electrical lines in Bangkok approved by the Surayud Chulanont government for completion by 2023 at a cost of 165 billion baht.

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