Lower electricity rates bring relief to Thai families and businesses
Pirapan Salirathavibhaga, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy, has announced that the electricity tariff for the billing cycle from January to April 2025 will be reduced. The current average tariff of 4,18 baht per unit, which will apply from September to December 2024, will drop to 4,15 baht per unit. The measure is intended to ease the cost of living and acts as a New Year gift to the Thai people.
Minister Pirapan said that the Energy Regulation Commission (ERC) has officially approved the reduction for the upcoming billing period. He stressed that he has asked relevant agencies to explore additional ways to further reduce tariffs, with the aim of reducing the financial burden on citizens. The minister expressed his appreciation for the efforts of the ERC, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and PTT Public Company Limited (PTT), which jointly contributed to making this reduction possible.
The ERC finalized its decision on November 27 following a public consultation, setting an adjusted fuel adjustment charge (Ft) and a new electricity tariff of 4,15 baht per unit for the period January to April 2025. This decision is based on a thorough evaluation of forecasts and relevant economic data.
The ERC will make an official announcement about this change soon. The tariff reduction will provide relief to both households and businesses throughout Thailand and will help improve the financial situation of the people.
Does it really matter that much? The poorer families that need to be helped hardly use any electricity. There are people who think a bill of 300 Baht per month is a lot. And what do they save? Not even 5 Baht? That is really a great help!
The only ones who benefit are those with bills of a few thousand Baht per month. And they are precisely the ones who would benefit more from a solar panel installation than from a tariff reduction.
Every little bit helps Sjaak. Sometimes it makes the difference between being able to buy a nice cup of coffee at the Seven or not.
It's nice that a poor Thai can finally afford something extra.
This could be the ultimate stepping stone from real poverty to the lower social middle class. No more hourly wages of 20 THB/hour!
With a 3 satang discount per unit, I don't think they saved enough money in 3 months for a cup of coffee from Seven.
How many kWh is such a unit?
That doesn't matter much Frank,
But the Thais received a discount of just over half a percent.
How happy they will be!
To visualize this discount, a 49 baht can of beer is reduced by half a baht.
Cheers to the Thai ESSENT
1000 wath is 1 kilowatt. Is a unit. Is explained by the manager of the complex.
I hardly notice it, I use 350 units of water and electricity per month…
I hardly use any air conditioning…
In any case, it is a reduction; in the Netherlands, rates are being increased again thanks to that fine market mechanism that was supposed to make everything cheaper and is now also destroying healthcare.
Do you realize that electricity rates in Thailand have already increased by 14% in the last four years? And now they are only reducing them by half a percent? That increase was largely due to the energy crisis, which was exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. And since Thailand is dependent on imports, it is uncertain how the rates will develop in the future. My guess is that they will increase again. The reduction is only for 4 months. This reduction is a joke.
I don't understand your reasoning. Would they have been better off doing nothing at all and letting prices rise a bit more?
In fact, that 14% is still reasonable compared to what has happened to the price in many other countries. I am happy to live here. The consumption rates for water, electricity and fuel are much more favorable than in my own country.
Sure, you just have to be happy with what you get. No increase? Cheer, cheer. But a minimal reduction? Hip hip hooray. After three months, you might just have enough for a midday meal. It remains a disgrace to me. It is actually an insult that you have to be happy with such a tiny reduction. At 10% it would already be somewhat more noticeable. Or better yet: the promise (and fulfillment of it) not to implement any increase for the next two years and to leave the rates as they are.
Making people happy with crumbs. And please, don't compare it to the Netherlands. We don't live there anymore, and the Thai inhabitants certainly don't.
By the way, during the crisis a few years ago, the rates went up much more than 14%. They lowered it later, but never brought it back to the old level.
Energy producers can use term contracts, whereby the purchase price of oil is fixed for a while. Due to the war in Ukraine, oil has become cheaper for some countries outside Europe, because Russia has to get rid of it somewhere and India and China, among others, benefit from lower oil prices. And due to the upcoming inauguration of Trump as president in the US, who announced that more oil can be drilled, the price also dropped. The fact that a half percent discount is given to Thai buyers without it being explained how this is financed says enough: both causes I mentioned can result in percent discounts for the energy producers, then half a percent is played nice weather and the other percent extra profit is collected by themselves, is I think the explanation for everything.
kWh is the unit of energy consumed per hour. So 1 unit is 1kWh.
Dear People….instead of criticizing the Thai government, you should rather applaud any initiative to lower energy prices. Even freezing the price would be very favorable in these times of high inflation. So lowering is nice anyway. In our nice west, you should not expect this from our governments….Our wokeleft Europe debacle is only out to take the hard-earned savings of its subjects as quickly as possible…..poor citizens = obedient citizens.
Now someone should explain to me how that average rate is arrived at.
Our monthly PEA electricity bill is made up as follows:
Fuel tariff – discount = 0,3972 – 0,1905 = 0,2067/kWh
≤15kWh => ฿2.3488/kWh
16-25kWh => ฿2.9882/kWh
26-35kWh => ฿3.2405/kWh
36-100kWh => ฿3.6237/kWh
101-150kWh => ฿3.7171/kWh
For consumption more than 150kWh = (150kWh × ฿3.2484/kWh) = ฿487,26
151-400kWh => ฿4.2218/kWh
≥401kWh => ฿4.4217/kWh
Fixed costs for consumption ≤150kWh = ฿8,19
Fixed costs for consumption ≥151kWh = ฿38,22
VAT = 7%
What would go a long way toward alleviating the cost of living would be a significant increase in the minimum wage (even ฿400/day is not enough to live decently).
All that extra money earned is (almost) immediately spent again and benefits the economy.
Theo, this is a much fairer system than, for example, in the Netherlands, those who use a lot pay more. In the Netherlands, heavy users are protected from the wind. A significant increase in the minimum wage creates a price spiral and is therefore less favourable for those with the lowest wage.
What kind of twisted reasoning is that?
I thought the opposite. The more you use, the cheaper you can buy something, that has always been the case.
Let me give you a practical example that proves you wrong, GeertP.
On April 1, 4, the minimum daily wage in Thailand was suddenly increased from ฿2012 to ฿215. That is an increase of almost 300%!
https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/minimum-wages
In the following 8 months, inflation rose from just over 3% to just over 4% year-on-year, before falling back to between 2,5 and 3,5% year-on-year.
https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/inflation-cpi
My conclusion is that even a gigantic increase in the minimum daily wage has only a (very) limited effect on inflation. Certainly no price spiral.
Furthermore, those who depend on the minimum wage will finally have the money to do more than survive. Money for overdue maintenance, much-needed repairs, education for the children, better food, etc., etc., etc.
I can assure you that, unlike the high earners, the more they earn flows straight back into the economy.
I would like to point out that Thai and foreign tenants of an apartment still pay 8 Baht. The landlord therefore adds approximately 4 Baht on top of the stated rate of approximately 4 Baht. The Thai government should put an end to this practice.
Can be solved if the landlord requests a normal user meter from the electricity company but that costs 4000 baht per separate meter. If you want to pay for this meter yourself as a tenant, this will eventually reduce the electricity bill. But then the landlord earns less and I think it will not happen, although the landlord is not allowed to charge extra. Therefore, always ask when renting whether you pay directly to the electricity company with your own meter or whether you use a meter from the landlord. The same applies to water consumption. By the way, the 8 baht rate is not fixed but differs per landlord, it just depends on what he wants to earn extra. Does not only apply to apartments but also other types of housing. A friend of mine rents a small house and pays the electricity to the landlord who charges the regular electricity rates and not the higher rental rates and this is a large landlord in my area, you have to be lucky who you rent from or else but that is why I moved and that is why I once did it because yes, if the electricity bill is half the rent then something is wrong.
This was my response to what Jacob wrote.
I have a 7.5 kW solar installation on the roof, with which I can generate approximately 20 kW per day.
My consumption from the grid is approximately 50 kW.
If I generate too much, I switch off part of the installation.
I can arrange it in 10% increments.
So I work with mini inverters.
We do everything electrically.
Before that time I always had a consumption of approximately 600-700 kW.
Investment was approx. 160000 bht.
So you can earn it back in about 5-6 .
year.
Greetings.
Ben Geuts