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PM Urges People Not to Worry about Power Supply Shortages in April
BANGKOK – Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Saturday urged This to have confidence in the government’s plans and measures to address the possible power supply crisis in April due to an expected disruption of natural gas supplied from Myanmar.
The premier, on her weekly TV programme “Yingluck Government Meets the People,” said that the government has urged the pubic to help save energy and is seeking additional power supply reserves to ease the impact of a possible power shortage on April 5.
April 5 was expected to be a peak period for electricity usage and risked blackouts in some areas of Bangkok and in some parts of southern region, she said.
The government has asked for cooperation from state enterprises and government offices to save energy by reducing the usage of power and raising the temperature setting of air conditioners, said the premier.
She added that the government has also requested factories suspend their production on April 5 to reduce the burden on the power supply.
Yingluck said she believed that after April 5, the country would enter the holiday festival of Songkran and the power usage would be reduced.
She said the government has prepared measures in response to the worst case scenario by reserving bunker oil and diesel full to run supplementary power plants.
Myanmar will shut down the Yadana gas field during April 5-14, cutting off the daily supply of 1 billion cubic feet, when power demand in Thailand is expected to peak. The shutdown will affect the operations of all six power plants in the west of Thailand with a combined capacity of 6,000 megawatts.
Each year, Thailand’s gas supply from Myanmar’s Yadana field is halted for pipeline maintenance during Songkran festival, or Thai Lunar New Year, when less natural gas is consumed.
But this year the closure will begin on April 5, before the Songkran holidays on April 12-16.
