Page 9 - AsiaElec Week 25

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GAS-FIRED GENERATION
AsiaElec
subsea pipelines. MOL will operate and main- tain both the FSRU and a jetty and will provide port services.
CAPCO is a joint venture of CLP Power Hong Kong and China Southern Power Grid International), which is in turn a wholly owned subsidiary of China Southern Power Grid.
Following the lead of mainland China’s cen- tral government, Hong Kong is pushing for greater use of gas in its primary energy mix.
e city government wants to li gas’ share of the power mix from 22% as of 2012 to about 50% by 2020.
Hong Kong’s current power plants use coal or gas imported from the international market or from the mainland.
“The FSRU vessel, together with the jetty and submarine pipelines, will enable us to have access to diverse gas sources for cost-competitive LNG supplies,” HK Electric managing director Wan Chi-tin said.
“ e new LNG terminal project will provide HK Electric with greater exibility and a new channel for Lamma Power Station to obtain nat- ural gas, easing the pressing need to enhance the security of gas supply.”™Body rst par. ™
POLICY
Thailand’s PTT to expand retail, power operations
ailand’s PTT has stepped up investments
in the retail and industrial power sectors as a bu er against the impact of a global economic slowdown on its oil re ning and chemical businesses.
“We have a global challenge and that is the (U.S.-China) trade war. at is one of our challenges - how can we survive in the short term?” PTT’s President and Chief Executive O cer Chansin Treenuchagron told Reuters. Asia’s oil and petrochemical producers
are facing thin pro t margins as fuel and chemical supply exceeds demand amid new production plants starting up, while global demand growth has slowed amid the trade war between the United States and China, the world’s two largest oil consumers.
e International Energy Agency has revised down its 2019 oil demand growth estimate by 100,000 barrels to 1.2 million barrels per day due to the worsening prospects for world trade, although stimulus packages and developing countries should boost growth
NEWS IN BRIEF
going into 2020.
“We look at continued improvement in the
short term. How can we sell at lower costs? How can we nd another income that doesn’t depend on oil and petrochemicals?,” Chansin said.
PTTOR plans to build an oil and lique ed petroleum gas (LPG) import terminal near ilawat in Myanmar with the Kanbawza Group, Chansin said.
In addition, PTT is expanding its utility subsidiary Global Power Synergy (GPSC) which focuses on providing power to industries, Chansin said.
GPSC is also pursuing a gas-to-power project in Myanmar, he said. e company has boosted its power-generating assets through acquisitions of a power project from PTT subsidiary ai Oil Pcl, and the purchase of Glow Energy Pcl from France’s Engie SA which has more than doubled GPSC’s power- generation capacity.
Last week, PTT also increased its investment spending plan for 2019 by 47% to 103.70 billion baht to support its subsidiaries’ expansion into electricity and renewable energy.
GRID
Thailand aims to regional power hub
ailand has announced it will develop its power transmission lines to become the electricity hub of the region, sourcing hydropower from Laos and selling it to Malaysia, Cambodia and Myanmar.
Kulit Sombatsiri, permanent secretary
of the Energy Ministry, told the ASEAN Senior O cials Meeting on Energy, that the idea was part of the ASEAN energy plans that ASEAN energy ministers would discuss in their meeting on Sept 2-3 to guarantee cheap electricity for ASEAN people. Modern transmission lines would serve the idea, he said.
According to Mr Kulit, the ASEAN Senior O cials Meeting on Energy also discussed renewable energy including solar, wind and biomass power.
As the ASEAN chair, ailand is pushing for polices related to electricity, energy e ciency, renewable energy and natural gas.
e ASEAN Senior O cials Meeting on Energy was set at Anantara Hotel on June 24-
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