SET-listed Gulf Energy Development, Thailand's biggest private power producer by market value, continues to ramp up growth of its energy business by selling electricity from its newly built gas-fired power generation unit in Chon Buri.
The facility, built under the GSRC power plant project, is being developed and operated by Gulf's subsidiary Gulf SRC Co, which sells power to the state-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) under the independent power producer scheme, according to Gulf's report to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
The new unit, which has operated since Oct 1, has electricity generation capacity of 662.5 megawatts.
It is the fourth of four power plant units, each with capacity of 662.5MW. The three other facilities started commercial operations between March 2021 and March this year.
All four GSRC facilities are located in WHA Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate 1 in Sri Racha district.
Gulf is also developing another project called GPD power project, which is also under the independent power producer scheme. It is being developed by Gulf PD Co, another subsidiary of Gulf.
GDP also comprises four power generation units, with combined capacity of 2,650MW.
Yupapin Wangviwat, chief financial officer of Gulf, said both GSRC and GPD secured 25-year power purchase agreements with Egat.
"We continue to expand the capacity because we aim to strengthen the company's energy business," she said.
The four power plant units under GDP are scheduled to start operation between March 2023 and October 2024.
Earlier Gulf acquired 49% of Jackson Generation, a gas-fired power plant in Illinois, for US$400 million (15 billion baht) as it embarked on its expansion in the US.
Jackson Generation, which is located in Will County, began commercial operation in May this year. It supplies electricity to the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection merchant market.
The asset acquisition, together with the development of GSRC and GPD, is part of capital spending worth 120 billion baht allocated for 2022-26.
Energy is still a key business of Gulf, although the company has diversified into infrastructure development, liquefied natural gas import, telecommunication, digital asset business and data centre development over the past six years.
