Thai power: Net metering comes to Thailand
✍ Scribed by Chris Greacen; Richard Plevin; Chuenchom Sangarasri Greacen
- Book ID
- 104438777
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2003
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 309 KB
- Volume
- 4
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1471-0846
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
In May of 2002, Thailand's Cabinet passed landmark renewable energy legislation requiring the country's electric utilities to allow solar, wind, micro-hydroelectricity, biomass or biogas generators up to 1 MW per installation to connect to the grid. The regulations provide for net metering, which means renewable energy producers can literally "spin the meter backwards". Under this arrangement, generators that produce less than they consume in a monthly period receive the retail tariff rate for electricity fed onto the grid. For net excess production, producers are compensated at the "bulk supply tariff" -which is the average cost of generation and transmission in Thailand and is about 80% of the retail rate. Either way, it is a very good deal for renewable energy producers.
In Japan, Europe, and many US states, streamlined interconnection and net metering policies have proved to be key steps toward realizing cost-effective renewable energy. Indeed, grid-connected residential/commercial systems now account for over 50% of the world's 400 MW/yr PV market (Maycock 2002). And while many countries and US states allow net metering only for systems 10 kW and smaller, Thailand's decision to accommodate sys-tems up to one hundred times this capacity allows larger, more cost-effective -particularly bio-fueled -generators to participate.