Egco urges state policy on waste June 11, 2009, 11:20 am.                                  Project scrapped in face of problems                                  The government's goal of turning waste into energy will never materialise unless a single body is formed to encourage producers, Thailand's leading private power producer says. "The Energy  Ministry should take a pioneering role and collaborate with the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry to create a single unit that sets waste management policy," said Sakul Pochanart, executive vice-president for project management at Egco Group Plc. Speaking at the Euromoney Conference yesterday, the executive of the SET-listed power producer said that the idea of turning municipal waste into energy would only make it to the drawing board if a government body acknowledges major problems. According to Mr Sakul, Egco suspended its waste-energy project in Phuket because it faced too many obstacles. Each municipality is responsible for waste management in its own area using its preferred method. So energy developers are faced with different processes resulting in different conditions of waste and costly waste management. "With these various practices, there are too many obstacles to develop a power plant from municipal waste," he said. The adder tariff offered by the Energy Ministry is considered a supportive incentive, but problems with municipalities are holding back investors from the alternative energy project. "Thailand will also likely face increasing waste management issues in the future as the volume of waste grows drastically yearly." He said that Egco's project would resume when the direction on the issue becomes clearer. "Egco is determining which project is most developed in the pipeline. Wind and solar energy projects are currently conducting feasibility studies, choosing technologies and viable sites. We are also looking at overseas projects," he said. Viraphol Jirapraditkul, the director-general of the Energy Policy and Planning Office (EPPO), acknowledged Egco's problem, but said it would take time to find solutions to better support the project's establishment. He also reaffirmed that the government was willing to provide incentives to all renewable energy developers. "We have seen an overwhelming response from the wind energy sector as developers have found that the projects are highly feasible compared to other types of resources," he said. "Our target is to see 115 megawatts of wind energy between 2008 and 2011, but if all interested participants follow through with projects, that would offer 800 MW. We reiterate that all energy will be purchased." By providing "adder" tariffs to promote the establishment of clean and renewable energy, power users are bearing about three satang per kilowatt/hour (unit) of power used to support the extra payment. In a related development, the oil refiner Bangchak Petroleum said yesterday that unless premium petrol is phased out of the market, the government's expectation that demand for gasohol, an ethanol blended with benzene, will reach 9 million litres in the next 15 years is impossible. BCP also complained that the gasohol margin is now lower than benzene at around 40-80 satang per litre, discouraging operators from promoting the fuel. By: VICHAYA PITSUWAN Bangkok Post  Published: 10/06/2009 at 12:00 AM Newspaper section: Business