Mr. Kowit Cheungsatiansup, Vice President of Corporate Planning of Global Power Synergy Public Company Limited (“GPSC”) Thailand’s leading power producer reveals a new plan in renewable power that, in supplementing to the Company’s co-generation power plants which is a simultaneous production of electrical and thermal energy from a single fuel, the Company is highly interested in Waste to Energy. This is because of its unique nature that it does not only generate power, but also effectively manage waste both Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and usage of Agricultural Waste to produce electricity.
“GPSC, in responding to the government’s focus on waste-to-energy and biomass power generation that has stored power and can then be used to generate energy, is going through a thorough study since Thailand is an agricultural country thereby having abundant and diverse supply of organic waste from agriculture and livestock. This could be more liable source of energy than that of wind and solar. Power plants relying on wind and solar usually require a backup from conventional power plants in case of insufficient level of wind and solar at a period,” says Mr. Kowit.
“Additionally, GPSC is also interested in using MSW to produce power, for it can mitigate the problem of waste disposal, benefitting –instead of facing trouble- from communities’ garbage. We still start with so-called ‘Rayong Model’ at Rayong, because the area needs a high level of energy while producing a large amount of Municipal Solid Waste. This waste-to-energy project will help to enhance suitable development to the community in the social, economic and environmental aspects.”
GPSC is now at a preparation process, in terms of both document -licenses, for example- and construction. “For the biomass power plant, we will team up with partner(s) from agriculture industry in order to secure the source of waste. We believe that the most appropriate size, at this point, would be 6-10 MW power plant. Larger-sized power plant will require higher amount of agricultural waste gathered from out of the plant area, resulting in higher cost transportation.