TPC Power Holding Plc (TPCH), the renewable energy arm of engineering and construction service provider Thai Polycons Plc, plans to join the state programme to sell electricity to manufacturers who demand more clean energy as part of their production.
The company will sell electricity via the state grid under the private power purchase agreements (PPAs) made with companies, especially those exporting products to countries which want their trading partners to adopt more environmentally friendly manufacturing.
The power trade is part of the second-phase of the ERC sandbox, scheduled to start in the middle of this year, said Cherdsak Wattanavijitkul, managing director of TPCH.
The ERC sandbox, overseen by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), was first introduced in 2019 to invite state and private firms to test new technologies to see whether they can serve new power trade models.
Peer-to-peer power trade, energy storage system development and smart grids, and distributed power generation systems, are key topics in the sandbox.
TPCH plans to have its two scrap wood-fired power plants in Yala, with combined electricity generation capacity of 18.4 megawatts, take part in the second-phase ERC sandbox, said Mr Cherdsak.
The facilities, which started operations between 2020 and 2021, still need improvements to increase efficiency and reduce operating costs.
Under the private PPAs, the two power plants, named TPCH 1 and TPCH 2, will be allowed to sell an unlimited amount of electricity to companies, especially when power demand is high in the future.
Mr Cherdsak expects to see TPCH's total revenue grow by 25% to almost 3 billion baht this year, up from 2.47 billion baht in 2021, thanks to additional capacity of two biomass power plants and full-year operation of a waste-to-energy project.
The firm plans to generate 854 million kilowatt-hour (KWh) of electricity this year, up from 672 million KWh last year.
Mr Cherdsak said his company plans to participate in an auction of waste-to-energy power plant development projects through its subsidiary Siam Power Co.
TPCH set a goal to increase its total generation capacity to 250MW within 2023, up from 116MW, supplied by its 13 power plants, currently in operation and under construction.
The firm is also conducting a feasibility study on carbon credit trade by using generation capacity of 110MW from its biomass and waste-fired power plants.
The amount is estimated to equal the reduction of 400,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
Carbon credits, which refer to the amount of greenhouse gas reduction from environmental projects, can be traded to firms to offset the carbon dioxide they release into the atmosphere.