Abstract:
The government has a policy to develop countrys energy plan to ensure energy security, sustainability, and environmental friendly. To support the above policy, the ministry of energy developed a Power Development Plan (PDP) to efficiently supply the increasing electricity demand in the future with appropriate investment. The major criteria used in the PDP is the reserve margin, which is the electricity generation capacity that securely supports the electricity demand in the emergency situation. Under earlier Thailands PDPs, the reserve margin was set at no less than 15% of the peak demand. This criterion has been used for a long time. Nowadays, according to the PDP2015-2036, there is a policy of promoting high penetration of renewable energy. In addition, there is also the risk of not being able to reduce the actual electricity demand according to the energy efficiency plan (EEP). Furthermore, the impact of unavailability of fuel supply systems which may result in a shortage of fuel for power generations has not been taken into account. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the new reserve margin that is more suitable for the current situation. This thesis proposes a suitable approach for estimating the reserve margin in comparison with the current criterion used in earlier PDP and also proposes a suggestion on how to determine a reserve margin that is suitable and in line with the current Thailands PDP. It considers the promotion of high penetration of renewable energy, risks of the energy efficiency plan, and the impact of unavailability of fuels. This can be used as a suggestion to improve the future power development plan of Thailand.