At the meeting, held at the Phuket Provincial Waste Disposal Center at Saphan Hin on Mar 27, it was explained that the plan was for the private firm EA Waste Management Phuket Co Ltd to build and operate the new facility, which is to cover 24,000 square metres (nearly 15 rai) at the Saphan Hin landfill site.
The new facility is to have the capacity to dispose of no less than 500 tons of solid waste each day, while producing 9.9 megawatts of electrical power, explained Pantip Chatrangsan, Business Development Manager of EA Waste Management Phuket Co Ltd.
An initial Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) assessment has been carried out, but a complete EIA will be prepared to present to the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) for approval, added Phuket Town Deputy Mayor Orapailin Trakulpriphon, who chaired the meeting.
“The problem of overflowing garbage in the city is an important problem that requires all sectors to participate in management,” Ms Onpailin said. “This stage is to listen to opinions from the public, who are considered to be a driving force to develop efficient solid waste management in Phuket Province.”
PRE-FIRE
The public meeting last week followed the announcement in September last year that Energy Absolute Public Company Limited (EA) had won the bid to build the new incinerator, pending approval by ONEP.
Present in Phuket as signatories to the government contract last September were Phuket Town Mayor Saroj Angkanapilas and EA Executive Vice President Wasu Klomkliang.
Despite a flurry of posts online announcing the contract signing, Phuket City Municipality did not reveal any details of EA’s successful procurement bid.
EA themselves, however, explained that the new incinerator is to be online and operating by 2026. Under a build-operate-transfer agreement, after the incinerator comes online, EA will operate the facility for 20 years before ownership is handed over to Phuket City Municipality.
The incinerator will have a burn capacity of not less than 500 tons per day, while generating 9.9 megawatts (MW) of electricity, which it will sell to the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA). The PEA will buy 8MW of electricity at B5.84 per unit for the first eight years, and at B5.14 per unit thereafter.
The contract was signed on Sept 20, 2023. EA defined the ‘total investment value’ of the contract as B2 billion
Of note, one year earlier, in 2022, EA reported to the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) that the company had established a new subsidiary called ‘EA Waste Management Phuket Co Ltd’… “to operate a business related to waste disposal, including the production and distribution of electricity produced from waste.”
The subsidiary EA Waste Management Phuket Co Ltd was formed with a registered capital of B100,000, divided into 10,000 common shares, valued at B10 per share.
SEEING GREEN
The new incinerator is just one of six projects under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on Feb 18 this year by Energy Absolute Public Company Limited (EA) with the Phuket branch of the Federation of Thai Industries Phuket (FTI Phuket) to jointly support the transformation of Phuket into a low-carbon green city.
The collaboration, under the ‘Phuket as a Green Island; Low Carbon City’ initiative, aims to promote the expansion and growth of tourism and all other industries in Phuket. EA selected Phuket, based on its global recognition as a tourist destination, as the first province to receive support from EA in promoting carbon neutrality comprehensively, explained a release detailing the MoU, the signing of which was attended by and witnessed by Phuket Governor Sophon Suwannarat.
The Feb 18 MoU featured projects such as installing EA Anywhere electric vehicle charging stations, both AC and DC systems, at key transportation points in Phuket; encouraging water tourism with E-Ferry services in collaboration with local private sectors for inter-island transportation and tourism; and consulting on and investing in Smart City developments, new cities, or large mixed-use communities, promoting Green Logistics and Green Electricity.
LONG OVERDUE
The project to move ahead with the new incinerator comes after nearly a decade of genuine deep concern over Phuket’s inability to dispose of the volume of trash generated on the island each day.
PJT Technology in 2018 was to commence construction of a new incinerator to help officials cope with the rising volume of trash that continually adds to the small hills of waste growing taller at the Saphan Hin landfill.
PJT had secured a 15-year build-operate-transfer government contract with an ‘investment value’ of B1bn. For reasons unexplained, that project never eventuated.
However, even back then officials at the time said that the two incinerators currently in action could burn on average only the same volume of garbage that was being delivered from across the island each day – about 850 tons, depending on the number of tourists on holiday in Phuket.
After separation and being dumped into waste pits to dry out, the volume of the garbage needed to be incinerated averaged about 680 tons a day.
The two current incinerators can burn up to 700 tons per day combined, but Chakkrit Songsaeng, Phuket City Wastewater Treatment Chief at the plant, noted that in the tourism high season the volume of solid waste arriving at the landfill was about 1,000 tons a day.
The new incinerator to be built by EA is to be the third incinerator at Saphan Hin, and is to help officials realise their aspirations of slowly burning off the mounds of trash in the landfill, which currently has five separate ‘pits’.
However, the release by EA announcing its successful bid noted that the new incinerator was to ‘replace’ the first incinerator built at Saphan Hin, which has been in operation more than 20 years and is long overdue to be shut down so it can undergo a full overhaul and maintenance.
While waiting for that to happen, Mr Chakkrit forecast that by 2027, daily waste sent to the centre may reach 1,150 tons.
Chantima Mongkol, Phuket City Solid Waste Management Chief at the plant, in 2018 said, “With the number of tourists increasing every year as well as Phuket residents that keep throwing away a large volume of unnecessary waste, it could be nearly impossible that the whole landfill waste will disappear.”
“I urge Phuket residents to not throw away things that have not been long used. They must know when they should throw things away. Most things can be used many times,” she said.
“People should also separate waste before throwing it out, and recycle them if they can. That will help the situation a lot,” she added.
“Phuket residents need to be aware that it is also their responsibility to help deal with the waste problem in Phuket,” Ms Chantima said.