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| Borrower/Equity Investment Name | BLCP POWER LIMITED | |||||||||||||
| Country | Thailand | |||||||||||||
| Location | Map Ta Phut in Rayong Province. | |||||||||||||
| Project Number | 37904-01 | |||||||||||||
| Approval Number | 7185 | |||||||||||||
| Type of ADB Assistance / Amount |
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| Thematic Classification | Private Sector Development Economic growth |
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| Sector/Subsector | Energy / Conventional Energy | |||||||||||||
| Responsible ADB Department | Private Sector Operations Department | |||||||||||||
| Responsible ADB Division | Infrastructure Finance Division 2 | |||||||||||||
| Responsible ADB Officer | Robert Lockhart | |||||||||||||
| Project Sponsor(s) |
Electricity Generating Public Co. Ltd. (EGCO)
Banpu Coal Power |
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| Description | The Project is a 1,434 MW coal-fired thermal power plant to be built at Map Ta Phut, Rayong Province, approximately 200 kilometers (km) southeast of Bangkok. The Plant will be a two unit pulverized coal-fired, electricity generating station to be operated by BLCP Power Limited (Project Company). The net power produced by BLCP will be fed to the Plant's 500 kV switchyard through which the electricity will be sold to the national utility and transported through the national grid. | |||||||||||||
| Objectives and Scope | The Project will help (i) provide additional capability to mitigate the projected power supply shortfall in a least-cost manner; (ii) promote fuel diversification for power generation; (iii) provide reliable power supply to domestic consumers; as well as to agricultural industry; and, (iv) further improve the sector's efficiency by promoting private sector participation in the power generation sector. | |||||||||||||
| Status of Development Objectives | The project has succeeded in meeting its primary development objectives. The Project was the largest private sector project in Thailand implemented post-financial crisis with the participation of a large number of both international and local commercial banks. BLCP was also the only coal-fired independent power producer (IPP) in the first round of IPP bidding which closed successfully and operated as originally intended. The BLCP plant has one of the lowest marginal costs in the system, and thus it is being dispatched at a high level by EGAT. BLCP's operations as a coal fired power plant has achieved the objective of fuel diversification in Thailand which is dominated by natural gas-fired power plants. | |||||||||||||
| Status of Operation/Construction | The Project was completed ahead of schedule. While COD was declared as scheduled on 1 October 2006 for Unit 1 and February 1 2007 for Unit 2, both units were already operational even before their respective scheduled COD. The Project is operating satisfactorily. | |||||||||||||
| Linkage to Country/Regional Strategy | The Project is consistent with ADB's energy sector strategy and is a competitively bid project. The output is supplied to EGAT at a tariff that is competitive relative to other existing generation plants. The technology adopted by the Project is consistent with ADB's environment policy, and price stability for the end consumer. ADB promotes reforms to improve accountability and governance in the sector as well as efficiency gains and affordable tariffs. | |||||||||||||
Safeguard Categories
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| Environment | A | |||||||||||||
| Summary of Environmental and Social Aspects | The project is built on reclaimed land in the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate in Rayong Province. The project is located in a large industrial estate with no nearby communities. Given its location and surroundings, the project site is less environmentally and socially sensitive compared to similar projects located outside the industrial area. The major environmental issues of the Project during construction were increased turbidity of sea water and adverse impacts on the local marine ecosystem, which may be caused by dredging of the sea bed for providing approach channel and turn around area for coal carriers, and for the construction of berthing facilities. During construction, all agreed mitigation measures were implemented and were effective in minimizing sea water turbidity.
The Project fully complied with all environmental covenants designed to minimize environmental impacts during operations. The Project installed all prescribed environmental mitigation measures, such as use of low sulfur coal and installation of electrostatic precipitators, and fulfilled all the monitoring and reporting requirements. The amount of pollutants in the flue gas, ambient air quality, groundwater quality, spent cooling water quality, and seawater quality around the discharge point of the spent cooling water consistently met the requirements prescribed in the relevant national standards and World Bank's guidelines and standards. Of note is the Project's support of community participation in the Project's environmental management and monitoring through a number of committees represented by the local communities, local governments, and concerned government agencies as well as the Project's representative. BLCP actively engages in educating the community and fosters community relations through an effective public relations strategy. The Project's performance in health and safety was also fully satisfactory judged by very low incidents of occupational health and work safety. As the Project is located in the developed industrial estate, it did not involve involuntary resettlement. The Project therefore had no direct and negative social impacts. The Project, however, implemented a number of social projects for the benefits of local communities. |
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| Stakeholder Communication, Participation and Consultation | A safeguard review mission was fielded on 13-14 December 2006. An Extended Annual Review mission was fielded on 17-19 March 2009 which included a review of the environmental management and social performance of the Project. | |||||||||||||
| Timetable for assistance design, processing and implementation | ||||||||||||||
| Concept Clearance | 24 Jan 2003 | |||||||||||||
| Due Diligence Mission | 26 Mar 2003 to 28 Mar 2003 | |||||||||||||
| Private Sector Credit Committee Meeting | 27 Aug 2003 | |||||||||||||
| Board Approval | 12 Nov 2003 | |||||||||||||
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