ADB lends $170M for Thai power plant

The Asian Development Bank is lending $170 million to build a 1,600MW natural-gas fired power plant in Thailand.

The plant will be built in Nong Saeng district north of Bangkok under a public private partnership arrangement.

By using clean burning, combined cycle technology to curb harmful carbon releases, the plant will avoid an estimated five million tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions that would otherwise be produced by coal-fired generators.

“This is the first large independent power producer project to reach financial close in Thailand since the 2008 global economic crisis,” said Daniel Wiedmer, Investment Specialist in ADB’s Private Sector Operations Department. “It incorporates state-of-the-art technology to generate electricity far more efficiently than coal fired systems, which are the only domestic alternative for IPPs.”

A subsidiary of J-Power, Japan’s largest wholesale power supplier, will develop and operate the plant, with the electricity to be sold to the state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand under a 25-year power purchase agreement. Thai energy firm PTT Public Company will supply the gas, and a group of companies led by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will build the facilities.

Alongside the investment by J-Power and ADB’s 23-year loan, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and commercial banks – Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd., KASIKORNBANK PCL, and Siam Commercial.