The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed a $180m agreement with Gulf PD to develop and operate a 2,500MW power plant in Thailand.
The combined cycle gas turbine power plant will be located nearly 150km south-east of Bangkok in the Rojana Rayong 2 Industrial Park.
Owned by Independent Power Development, Gulf PD was established in 2012 to construct and operate the plant. Independent Power Development is a joint venture (JV) company of Gulf Energy Development (GED) and Japanese trading company Mitsui.
ADB Deputy Private Sector Operations director general Christopher Thieme and the GED CEO Sarath Ratanavadi signed the Eastern Economic Corridor Independent Power Project agreement in Bangkok.
Thieme said: “The project will build the fourth-largest power plant and one of the largest combined cycle gas turbine power plants in Thailand, which will be key in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) development plan, considered as the prime economic growth driver for the country until 2028.
“ADB is proud to play an essential role in this transaction, which will help provide reliable power to industry and households and boost Thailand’s economic growth and development prospects.
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By GlobalData“We are particularly pleased to bring in additional co-financiers to this transaction through our B loan program and LEAP since the financing gap will be one of the major challenges for the success of the EEC development plan.”
The financial support offered by ADB includes a regular loan of $50m and a B loan of up to $85m that will be funded by Singapore’s Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation and Germany’s DZ Bank.
Additionally, ADB will also mobilise $45m through co-financing arm Leading Asia’s Private Infrastructure Fund (LEAP), which was established in 2016 and supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The power plant is expected to commence operation in 2024. Once operational, the power plant will have the capacity to generate 16,000GWh of electricity, which would reduce carbon emissions by one million tonnes per year compared to existing electricity grid emissions.
The power plant will be important for ensuring Thailand’s energy security, as nearly 20% of its ageing power plants will be retired between 2020 and 2025.
This is not the first power plant ADB has backed in Thailand. In November 2018 it signed a $227.7m loan deal with Gulf SRC Company to build a 2,500MW combined cycle power plant in Thailand’s Chonburi Province.