A Biomass Power Plant in Tayland Rich in rice in the Thai province of Chai Nal, a dense network of irrigation channels cut the plains, which give a generous three and a halt harvests per year. Amid this rich rice-producing region, a rice husk-burning power plant is in its commissioning phase. The power plant projeci was originally started in lale 1996 but stalled when the Asian financial crisis hit. After standing idle tor over two years, work has once again begun to complete the project, which is located around 200 km north of Bangkok. The power plant is one of the first private small scale base load power plants with a firm 25 year electric power supply contract with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). The power purchase agreement (PPA) was signed on 22 October 1996, and originally the company was to commence the sale of 5 MW of electricity at 22 kV in February 1998. The owner of the power plan! is the BioMass Power Company Limited (BMP), a Thai-owned company which is aim ing to build several comparable biomass fuelled power plants in Thailand. it was tounded by a small group of people with consid erable experience in the petrochemical and power industries. BMP started to build the power planı in October 1996 with equipment mainly of Chinese manufacturing, but the construction was halted one year later when the planı was 75 per cent complete, when the funding problems arose due to the Asian economic crisis and the sharp decline in the Thai Baht. Signs of recovery Little or no progress was made on the projeci tor about two and a halt years, but a contract tor completing remaining installation and erection activities of the biomass power planı was signed on 17 April 2000, signalling a recovery in Thailand's economy. The contract was awarded to S.T. Fortum Engineering, Thailand, which then signed Fortum Engineering of Finland tor support and projeci expertise. The contract includes commissioning and test runs of the power planı, and commencing commercial operation within the planned schedule - by the end of October 2000 - is essential tor Fortum Engineering since financial reimbursement tor the contract will come from electricity sales. BMP and the operating personnel service company Epcom will together continue the projeci implementation. Since the projeci is in line with the target of decentralized power pro duction, the promotion of prosperity in rural areas and the exploitation of renewable resources, it clearly is in harmony with the principle of sus tainable development. Renewab/es and SPPs Today renewable energy accounts tor an estimated 26 per cent of Thailand's total energy consumption. The vasi majority of !his demand comes from the use of wood tor domestic uses ECOGENERATION WORL0 1 47
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