Thailand’s Global Power Synergy sets capacity goal for 10 years to 16,000 megawatts

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A solar power plant of Superblock, Southeast Asia’s biggest producer of solar power, in Phetchaburi province, Thailand

Thailand’s Global Power Synergy sets capacity goal for 10 years to 16,000 megawatts

Global Power Synergy Plc (GPSC), a power generation arm of PTT Group, has set a 10-year time frame to achieve the company’s goal of increasing its power generation capacity to almost 16,000 megawatts from 5,055MW at present.

Half of the new capacity will be produced by fossil fuel resources with the remainder generated by renewable ones, said GPSC chief financial officer Thitipong Jurapornsiridee.

By 2025, the firm expects to achieve capacity of 8,000MW through its expansion of traditional power generation facilities in Thailand and across Asia-Pacific.

The company wants to add another 8,000MW to its portfolio by 2030 through renewable energy development, to be carried out by its subsidiary Global Renewable Power Co (GRP).

To achieve the renewable energy goal, massive capital spending is required, said Mr Thitipong. Parent firm PTT recently resolved to take half ownership in GRP to support this investment, which will be made internationally.

GRP owns and operates nine in Lop Buri, Suphanburi, Phichit and Khon Kaen, with combined capacity of 39.5MW.

In 2021, GPSC plans to spend almost 18 billion baht for ongoing development projects such as a 192MW gas-fired small power producer scheme and a battery production factory in Rayong, as well as an energy recovery unit power plant in Chon Buri.

He said a challenge for GPSC is to scale up the infrastructure for energy storage systems and electric vehicles (EVs). It recently made a 500-million-baht investment to acquire an 11.1% equity interest in Chinese battery manufacturer Anhui Axxiva New Energy Technology Co to accelerate its growth in EV battery production.

Axxiva specialises in producing EV batteries, with production capacity of 1 gigawatt-hour per year. It is using technology from Boston-based 24M Technologies Inc in the US.

GPSC is a licensee of 24M Technologies, which owns energy storage system technology. GPSC is developing a pilot semi-solid battery factory in Rayong’s Map Ta Phut at a cost of 1.1 billion baht.

Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2076063/gpsc-sets-capacity-goal-for-10-years