Partnership Results
Background
Thailand aims to reach high-income country status by 2032. To achieve this, Thailand launched Thailand 4.0, a development model to pull the country out of the middle-income trap. Thailand 4.0 aims to create a value-based economy driven by innovation.
What sets Thailand 4.0 in action is the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) development plan, a roadmap adopted by the government to drive the country’s economic growth until 2028. The EEC development plan builds on the Eastern Seaboard Development Program (ESDP), which is credited for the country’s rapid industrial transformation. The ESDP, launched in 1982, established major industries along Thailand’s eastern seaboard and facilitated major investments in infrastructure.
EEC now advances the government’s aim to promote the next generation of industries and infrastructure. EEC’s development plan needs large investments due to the plan’s unprecedented scale. One such case is a key utility project, an independent power plant (IPP) centrally located in the EEC.
Interventions
ADB is working with the Gulf PD Company Limited on the Thailand: Eastern Economic Corridor Independent Power Project, with cofinancing from Leading Asia’s Private Infrastructure Fund for $45 million, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, and other commercial lenders, including an ADB B loan of $85 million. The project involves the construction and operation of a 2,500 MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant in the Rojana Rayong 2 Industrial Park of Rayong Province, about 150 km southeast of Bangkok.
The EEC power plant will be the fourth-largest power plant and one of the largest CCGT power plants in the country. It will become fully operational by 2024, which coincides with the EEC development plan’s expected increase in energy demand, and Thailand’s largest decommissioning of aging power plants.
The project aligns with ADB’s Strategy 2030, tackling climate change, building climate and disaster resilience, and enhancing environmental sustainability, as well as supports private sector participation in infrastructure to fill the infrastructure gap and catalyze and mobilize financial resources for development. The project is also consistent with ADB’s country partnership strategy on promoting the support for private sector development and energy infrastructure.
Expected Results
The project, once completed, will help improve Thailand’s power system stability and reliability. The output, including the construction and commissioning of a combined cycle natural gas power plant, will deliver a stable and reliable power to the EEC area by annually delivering at least 16,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity. Furthermore, the plant will avoid at least one million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions yearly.