BANGKOK: Thailand-listed engineering firm International Engineering Pcl (IEC) is in negotiations to acquire additional 50 per cent stake in GIDEC Co Ltd from the country’s majority state-owned power plant operator Electricity Generating Pcl (EGCO). GIDEC, which is equally held by IEC and EGCO, operates municipality solid waste-to-energy plant project in Songkla province with a full capacity of 6.5 megawatts. However, the plant currently operates at 5 megawatts and it will boost capacity to 6.5 megawatts soon.
“We are willing to sell our share to IEC and we are working on it now. However, I am not sure whether we will sell this year. We will discuss about it again after the project has started operations at the full capacity,” EGCO’s president Chanin Chaonirattisai said. GIDEC’s power plant is the first of its kind in Thailand using proven pyrolysis combustion technology developed in Finland.
There are more than 30 large solid waste landfills in Thailand which IEC views as potential to operate similar small-scale solid waste-to-energy power plants. Chanin also said that EGCO would join the bidding for setting up a 9-megawatts biomass power plant in the South. The bidding’s criteria should be announced in June. Last month IEC announced an investment spend of 300 million baht for acquiring a 3-megawatt biogas power plant in Kanchanaburi province during this quarter.
The budget includes the project’s construction cost, and is expected to be completed in a year, commencing operation in the second quarter next year. The source of funds will come from internal financing and working capital.
