A Prospective Feed-In Tariff of Rice Husk Power Plants in Thailand under the Power Development Plan 2018

Thailand is one of the top producers of agriculture products including rice, sugarcane, oil palm, and coconut. The agriculture residues of these products can be important sources of fuel used for electricity generation. Thailand has great potential to develop the biomass residues for power generation. It also has carried out the objective of promotions the renewable energy investment for power generation. The objective of this research is to propose the prospective feed-in tariffs of electricity generation from biomass. Under the Power Development Plan 2018, the Thai government has initiated the competitive bidding type of feed-in tariffs in all renewables types at a single rate. This type of feed-in tariff uses a rate of power purchasing of all renewable energies at the rate is no more than an electricity price that generated mostly from fossil fuel sources. The biomass power plants with a capacity of 3,496 MW that will be installed between 2018 and 2037, must use this type of feed-in tariff. The proposed prospective feed-in tariffs rate in this research is proposed at $0.08/kWh. This rate is lower than the rate from the feed-in tariffs scheme regulated by the government in 2015 at $0.121/kWh. The research compares the lower prospective feed-in tariffs rate that can reduce the subsidization of electricity generated from renewable energy. The key parameters used for prospective feed-in tariffs rates such as the net present value, interest rate return of investment, IRR, and the payback period of investment. Many sensitivities that affecting the investment are also proposed in this research. This research uses the rice husk power plant as a model for VSPP biomass investment with an installed capacity of less than 10 MW. Three rice husk power plants from different locations in three provinces in Thailand have been used for this research.