Mr. Danucha Pichayanan, Secretary-General of the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC), who serves as the secretary to the committee tasked with addressing issues related to the purchase of electricity from private power producers—chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Pakorn Nilprapunt—announced that the committee had resolved to revise the approach towards purchasing electricity from renewable energy producers in the private sector.
This decision aims to ensure fairness for consumers and to better reflect actual costs in line with the government’s policy direction.
The committee agreed to adjust the purchasing rates to align with current, more affordable technologies. The reference price will be based on the community solar project, currently set at THB 2.16 per unit, and will initially apply to solar power plants due to the availability of a clear reference price. The purchase price for electricity generated by wind power plants will be determined in subsequent considerations.
The revised policy divides the affected power plants into two main groups. The first group includes power plants whose original contract term of 25 years has expired—currently about 515 contracts with a combined production capacity of approximately 2,400 megawatts. Previously, these contracts were automatically renewed for additional terms of three to five years. Under the new resolution, automatic renewals will be discontinued.
Instead, only a single renewal matching the duration of the original contract (for example, three or five years) will be permitted, and the purchase price for electricity will be set at THB 2.16 per unit. Once this renewed term concludes, the contract will be considered terminated.
The second group consists of contracts that have fully received the Adder subsidy for ten years, but have not yet reached the end of the 25-year contract duration. There are approximately 46 such contracts with a combined commercial operation capacity (COD) of about 1,478 megawatts.
Since these facilities are considered to have recovered their initial investment during the Adder-supported period, the remaining term of the contract will see a reduction in the electricity purchase price to THB 2.16 per unit as well. For non-COD projects, where there are roughly four contracts with a combined capacity of 67 megawatts that have exceeded the COD deadline by more than two years without significant progress, the committee will consider canceling the contracts on a case-by-case basis.
Moving forward, the committee will propose these changes to the National Energy Policy Council (NEPC), chaired by the Prime Minister, to establish official policy. Subsequent steps will involve revising or revoking previous NEPC resolutions that allowed for automatic contract renewals. The three major state electricity authorities will then proceed to renegotiate the relevant contracts with private producers.
Mr. Natee Sithiprasasana, Chairman of the Renewable Energy Industry Club, Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), revealed that currently only 28 renewable energy projects continue to receive the Adder subsidy, with a combined installed capacity of 1,594.85 megawatts—most of which are wind power projects. All existing Adder entitlements are scheduled to expire by 2029, while the majority of renewable projects have already exhausted their eligibility for the subsidy.
For non-firm power purchase agreements (PPAs) with renewable projects, which have five-year contract terms and continuous renewal (but are not associated with the Adder program), the combined production capacity stands at 4,108 megawatts. The purchase rates for these contracts reference the average wholesale electricity price plus the feed-in tariff (Ft).
The Renewable Energy Industry Club has recommended that the government maintain the original conditions of existing PPAs while allowing producers to sell additional electricity at reduced purchase rates to help lower the country’s mean electricity costs.
Additionally, the club has proposed accelerating the implementation of a Third Party Access (TPA) system, which would allow over 2,596 megawatts of capacity from projects no longer eligible for the Adder to be used for direct PPAs with industrial consumers of clean energy—such as data centers, the automotive and electronics sectors, and export manufacturers.
Mr. Natee further noted that if the government considers canceling renewable energy PPAs with five-year and continuous terms, a clear resolution should be adopted and negotiations with the private sector must precede any action. Unilaterally terminating contracts, especially when the producers have not violated contract terms, could lead to legal disputes and potential claims for damages.
