BANGKOK, Thailand – Thailand is restructuring its power tariff system, introducing a distinct electricity category for data centers to reflect actual fuel costs while capping household rates to reduce the public’s burden, Energy Minister Akanat Promphan said on Wednesday. Following a meeting of the National Energy Policy Council (NEPC), Akanat announced that the government will classify data centers as a separate consumer category. Their rates will be structured to reflect the actual import costs of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and will be tied to environmental and water resource management standards.
The move aims to prevent high fuel cost burdens from being passed on to household consumers. Data center rates are expected to be higher than those of other industrial and residential sectors due to their heavy electricity consumption. To ease living costs, the government will also cap electricity rates for the first 200 units of household consumption at 3 baht per unit starting this August, covering over 23 million households. To fund this discount, public lighting costs will be removed from the general household base rate. (TNA)
