Bangkok Green Energy Storage System Construction

Thailand may lack the Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) necessary to navigate supply and demand challenges. The 2024 PDP draft included 10,000 MW of BESS, but this may see the country struggle to fulfil carbon neutrality and Net Zero commitments over the coming decades.

Their total combined storage capacity was 994 MW. Interestingly, this allowed generators to sign semi-firm power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) with minimum availability guarantees. Many solar projects in Thailand have non-firm PPAs in place due to a lack of storage on site.

Rooftop solar is also expanding fast, with the quota for public installations rising from 50 MW to 200 MW, plus an additional 50 MW dedicated to Bangkok. These changes reflect not just ambition, but momentum. Read Also: The Promise of Thailand Renewable Energy Initiatives

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are essential for buildings and renewable power generation facilities to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply. Renewable sources like solar and wind power are intermittent, and influenced by weather patterns. BESS mitigates this issue by storing electricity for future use.

Thailand can manage its energy transition and solve the energy trilemma of sustainability, security and affordability by accelerating renewable power additions and grid capacity expansion, while limiting new thermal power capacity addition.

In April 2023, Thailand awarded project rights for 1GW of solar capacity paired with one-to-four-hour storage. However, only 0.3GW has been commissioned to date. While the draft PDP2024 has ambitious battery capacity targets, Thailand has not clarified the mechanism to support deployment of renewable-plus-storage.