The complaints have spiralled on Thai social media pages, with many people complaining that their electricity bills were suddenly more expensive since January.
When called by The Phuket News today (Mar 28), Phuket PEA Manager Wichan Praenam said that he was not aware that many people had posted complaints online about their higher electricity bills.
Mr Wichan explained that the cause was an increase in what the PEA calls the “Ft”.
The “Ft” is defined by the PEA as a variable tariff or tariff derived from the Automatic Tariff Adjustment Mechanism formula.
“It reflects the change in uncontrolled cost of the utilities, such as fuel cost and purchasing power, which are only differ from base tariff.
“It now is particularly important to encourage efficient procurement of generation from EGAT’s own plant and EGAT’s power in purchasing from independent power producers (IPPs) , small power producers (SPPs) and neighbouring countries (Laos and Malaysia) as generation costs are the largest component of electricity costs. Ft is also included the expense occurred from Government Policies,” the PEA explains.
Mr Wichan explained that the Ft is reviewed every four months: January, May and September each year.
“It increased by B0.1160 per unit in January,” he said.
“The Ft sometimes increases, it also sometimes decreases or it can even remain unchanged,” Mr Wichan said.
“The rate is determined by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) as appointed by the Ministry of Energy. In doing so, they consider costs such as oil prices, natural gas prices and the trading value of the baht, among other things,” he said.
“We understand that people might criticize an increase in the Ft as this can increase the electricity costs of each house considerably.
“This is especially so when the weather is hot (when many people use their air conditioners much more). The electricity bills can much more,” he added.
“Also, people use a lot more electricity during the school holidays. Any home that has children will use more electricity during this time,” he said.
The month of March is when Phuket uses more electricity than any other month of the year, Mr Wichan added.
“So it is not surprising that people’s electricity bills are higher,” he added.
“Regarding the increase in the Ft, it is not about any government's policy. It’s not about the election,” Mr Wichan.
“It’s normal and it has been adjusted for a long time now,” he said.
Mr Wichan told The Phuket News that he would be posting a public announcement to explain the Ft as soon as practicably possible.