Thai sugar mills that produce electricity from waste products may face barriers to selling their surplus power to the national grid unless the government sets a clear policy for regulating the matter, says Thai Sugar Millers Corporation.
The company said sugar mills have been using biomass to produce electricity for their own use for 15 years. Any surplus was sold to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat).
But a new law obliges plants wishing to sell electricity to first comply with regulations drawn up by the Office of the Energy Regulatory Board, established in 2007, which include environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and health impact assessments (HIAs), said TSM, which comprises 47 sugar mills.
About 90% of these 47 sugar millers each generate more than 10 megawatts of electricity per year, which technically classifies them as power plants.
A TSM executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the corporation was concerned that classifying sugar mills as power stations, which are regulated by the Industry Ministry's Industrial Works Department, would reduce the number of sugar producers willing to sell electricity to Egat.
Last year, 36 sugar plants were permitted to sell electricity totalling 269.8 MW to Egat. Two more mills are currently seeking permission to sell their electricity.
The executive said the main business of sugar mills was not generating electricity but producing sugar. Growing concern about climate change has also raised the environmental awareness of sugar producers, leading many in the industry to campaign for farmers to stop burning sugarcane in order to cut the sector's environmental impact.
"The electricity is produced is from bagasse [a fibrous residue left after extracting the juice from sugarcane] which makes use of leftover material. If the electricity produced cannot be sold, it will be wasted," said the executive.
TSM said sugar plants are regulated by a 1992 industrial act relating to pollution and waste, and could be forced to suspend operations if they exceed pollution limits.
The government should set a clear policy for regulating sugar plants and other industries that use leftover waste to generate electricity, said the company.
TSM has submitted its concerns to the government, calling for sugar plants to be allowed to sell surplus electricity to Egat until the year-end.
