SONGKHLA, June 14 — Temporary maintenance for natural gas from the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area (JDA) A18 block continued for a second day on Saturday while power officials said the southerners have cooperated in power consumption so far.
Sutthichai Sooksisaen, chief of provincial energy office in Songkhla, said power consumption in the South on Friday stood at 2,100 megawatts, lower than 2,300 megawatts from earlier projection, due to cooperation offered by every sector to consume less power.
However, Mr Sutthichai said relevant officials are monitoring power consumption over this weekend, as many tourists are expected to visit the region and many activities will be held between 6.30pm and 10.30pm — considered peak hours for power consumption.
He said there would be sufficient electricity for consumption in the South and it would be unnecessary to supply power from the Central region to the South if every sector helped in consuming less power during the 28-day maintenance of the JDA A18 block.
Songkhla’s Chana power plant which runs on natural gas was forced to temporarily close down due to maintenance of the JDA A18 block, and prompted electrical power generated in region to drop by 710 megawatts per day. This had raised fear of power outage in the region.
