06-10-03 Member countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will need investments totalling $ 100 bn over the next 12 years to meet growing electricity demand, said a senior Thai electricity official.
"From 2002 to 2015, we will need (capacity of) another 100,000 MW to be built in this region," said Sittiporn Ratanopas, governor of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand. He estimated that it would cost $ 1 mm to build each MW of capacity.

Sittiporn was addressing a power industry conference held in Singapore. Electricity demand from ASEAN countries stood at 62,200 MW last year. It is projected to grow to 116,000 MW by 2010 and then to 163,000 MW by 2015, Sittiporn said.
Sittiporn noted that North Asia holds potential vast resources for hydropower generation.
In Myanmar, there's potential for 100,000 MW (of hydropower generation) in one country, and you still have potential in Vietnam, Laos and southern China," he said. "There's a lot of hydropower in North Asia." On the other hand, electricity generation in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei is dominated by coal, gas and oil.

An ASEAN power grid would allow the optimal combination of power generated by hydropower and fossil fuels, he said.
"If we try to maximise the use of these two kinds of resources, we can use hydropower for peaking or intermediate demand, and fossil fuel (power generation) for base load demand," he said.
One hydropower project with high potential is a hydropower project on Myanmar's Salween river.
"Five hydropower dams can be built on this single river, with capacity between 12,000 MW or 16,000 MW depending on the design of the plant," Sittiporn said.

The 400 bn baht ($ 1 = THB 39.53) Thai-Myanmar Salween Hydro-Electric Power Dam Project was proposed several years ago. One dam would be built at Tasang in Myanmar's southern Shan State, and the other in Karen, or Kayah, State, where the river marks the border with Thailand's northern province of Mae Hong Son.
The 2,400 km-long Salween river flows from China through Myanmar and into the Gulf of Martaban.

ASEAN countries have been working on a transnational electricity supply grid. ASEAN is made up of Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Brunei and Cambodia. Currently, three power interconnection projects are in operation, eight are in various stages of implementation, and the rest remain in the initial stages.
The three operational interconnections are the Peninsula Malaysia-Singapore project, Thailand-Peninsula Malaysia, and Thailand-Laos. A total of 14 interconnection projects will form the regional electricity grid by 2020.