The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) will finalise the controversial Nam Theun 2 dam project in Laos by signing a power-purchasing agreement with the project’s owners next week. The initial agreement will be signed by Egat’s governor and the  electricity consortium on January 17 in Vientiane. PM’s Office Minister Chaturon
Chaisang, who oversees energy policy, and Piyasvasti Amranand, secretary-general of the National Energy Policy Office (Nepo), will witnesses the signing. Egat’s decision to sign has come at the same time as the contracts for the two coal-fired power plants in Prachuap
Khiri Khan – Bo Nok and Hin Krud – are being argued in some quarters as imposing unfair burdens on the country. Minister Chaturon on Monday assigned legal experts to investigate the two contracts – signed between Egat and the project-owners – saying they contained many points that were disadvantageous to the Kingdom. For example, the contracts stated that if the projects were cancelled, Egat must compensate the
company to the tune of about Bt8 billion. The Nam Theun 2 mega hydro-power project, with a capacity of about 920 megawatts, has been hanging in the balance for more than a decade as it has faced strong opposition from ecologists and economists in various countries.

Ecologists complain the Nakai Plato, a vast area that is a haven of biological diversity, would be submerged; economists worry about the economic returns from the project. Witoon Permpongsacharoen, director of the regional environmental group Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance, questioned the wisdom of Egat’s decision to buy
electricity from the neighbouring country. He wondered how the government could buy more electricity while the country was talking about having excess energy reserves. “The most important thing is Egat and other state agencies connected to the issue have never informed the public about details of the contract,” he said. Piyasvasti argued that reserve energy was enough for recent times, but not for the future. He added that electricity from the dam would not substitute electricity from two local power plants. “Whether the Bo Nok or Hin Krud projects can be built or not, we need electricity from the dam,” he said. He
added that the Nam Theun 2 dam would be completed and begin transferring electricity to the country in 2008. Asked whether the government would reveal details of the agreement before signing, Piyasvasti replied that “right now, nobody has asked to see the
details”.