Thailand, like any other ASEAN nations, stands at an important crossroad in its energy verse. Having announced its goals to hit carbon neutrality by 2050, and net-zero before 2065, Thailand is committed on its journey of transitioning toward a cleaner and greener future of energy. This includes the adoption of alternative energy such as solar, wind and hydropower, the latter being the biggest source of renewable energy in the country.
In 2021, Thailand’s hydropower has achieved a total capacity of approximately 3.7 thousand megawatts (MW). At the same time, the country continues to announce numerous hydro-floating solar hybrid plants, including one that is dubbed as the world’s largest, Sirindhorn Dam, which began its commercial operations in 2021.
Leveraging this hydro potential, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), a state-owned enterprise supervised by Thailand’s Ministry of Energy, explored solutions to balance and strengthen its grid system for a more stable renewables integration. GE’s Pumped Storage Hydro (PSH) technology has provided them an answer to the challenges faced in its transition efforts.
“EGAT would like to thank the GE team for supporting our PSH ventures since 2019. With this support, we are seeing increasing encouragement to incorporate PSH projects as part of Thailand’s Smart-Grid Plan (2022 – 2031) for the medium-term which was announced by the Energy Policy and Planning Office (EPPO), Ministry of Energy, Thailand,” expressed a grateful customer, Mr Prasertsak Cherngchawano, the Deputy Governor of Thailand’s EGAT in his letter on 25th April 2022.
Through GE’s latest generation of pump-turbines design, the PSH technology brings a combination of high performance, high hydraulic stability, and low vibrations that give plant owners more flexibility, output efficiency, reliability, and availability to better support their grid.
“Helping Thailand on its journey towards carbon neutrality by 2050 with Pumped Hydro Storage Technology is an honour and an obligation for us,” said Brian Selby, GE Hydro Solution’s Regional Manager for Asia. He added, “We are very grateful to EGAT for their trust in us and are firmly committed to continue this cooperation on Pumped Hydro Storage in the future.”
Below is a recap of how GE’s hydro storage solutions successfully support EGAT and Thailand to achieve its energy transition goals.
