Today (July 31, 2024), Mr. Weerapat Kiatfuengfu, Director of the Energy Policy and Planning Office, as the secretary of the Energy Policy Administration Committee (NEPC) and the spokesman of the Ministry of Energy, revealed that the NEPC meeting, chaired by Mr. Pirapan Salirathavibhaga, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy, resolved to use the difference in natural gas prices resulting from the implementation of the NEPC resolution on December 13, 2023, in adjusting the criteria for calculating the price of natural gas entering and leaving the natural gas separation plant to help reduce the burden of energy costs for people who use natural gas for vehicles (NGV). This price difference will help support the retail price of NGV to prevent an immediate increase from the natural gas price at the end of the year, which tends to increase, for a period of 3 months from August 16 to October 15, 2024. PTT Public Company Limited has been assigned to proceed and report the results of the implementation to the N EPC.Mr. Weerapat added that the meeting also resolved to approve the proposal to adjust the principle of purchasing electricity from renewable energy for electricity generation projects with no fuel costs and industrial waste in the form of Feed-in Tariff (FiT) for 2022-2030 to support investment in clean energy. The principle was reviewed and adjusted for bidders who passed the criteria in the first round and were not selected. They will be considered for purchase first in the total purchase amount not exceeding 600 megawatts for wind power and not exceeding 1,580 megawatts for ground-mounted solar power. The remaining quota from the above purchase will be open for general purchase.In addition, the meeting resolved to approve the proposal in principle to postpone the commercial operation date (SCOD) for wind power generation projects according to the plan to increase electricity generation from clean energy under the Power Development Plan of Thailand 2018-2037, first revision (PDP2018 Rev.1) during 2021 -2030 (additional revision) that was affected by the Central Administrative Court's relief order, totaling 22 projects, causing the projects to delay their operations in related parts. The meeting assigned the ERC to consider adjusting the time frame for entering into power purchase agreements and postpone the SCOD for the wind power generation projects to be appropriate for the changing situation of each project as appropriate. However, it must not exceed the framework within 2030 so as not to affect the country's plan to increase electricity generation from clean energy according to the country's goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 30-40% (Nationally Determined Contribution: NDC) by 2030.Source: Thai News Agency