The government has offered an assurance that the electricity charge for households for May through August will be 4.77 baht per unit, instead of the 5.24 baht for the January-April period, according to Government Spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri.
Responding to complaints from householders about the sharp increases in their electricity bills during the hot season, he said that the Energy Regulatory Commission has set the Fuel Tariff (FT) at 98.27 satang/unit for household and non-household electricity, bringing the average electricity charge at 4.77 baht/unit for May through August.
The charge for the months of January until April for households was based on the cost of liquefied natural gas (LNG,) which has increased substantially since late last year due to the increased imports of LNG to offset the shortfall in domestic LNG from the Gulf of Thailand and the war in Ukraine, he said.
Anucha said that the government had decided, however, to ease the impact of electricity charges for households as a special case, by setting the charge at 4.72 baht/unit for the months of January-April, while increasing the charge for non-household or industrial use to 5.33 baht/unit.
Although global fuel prices have dropped, he said that they have no effect on electricity generation in Thailand because the Thai energy production technology relies on LNG for production.
Despite the drop in energy costs since the beginning of this year, he said that the Energy Regulatory Commission has to maintain the FT set last year for January-April adding, however, that the government will try to cut electricity charges further in the future by reducing the dependence on LNG and promoting the use of renewable sources of energy.
