Chonburi Power Plant Project
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Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (Final) Part 4 of 4 October 2018 THA: Chonburi Power Plant Project Prepared by Gulf SRC Company Limited for the Asian Development Bank. The environmental and social impact assessment report is a document of the borrower. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of ADB's Board of Directors, Management, or staff, and may be preliminary in nature. Your attention is directed to the Term of Use section of this website. In preparing any country program or strategy, financing any project, or by making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area in this document, the Asian Development Bank does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area. CHAPTER 6 ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVES Environmental Report for submittal to ADB Chapter 6 Sriracha Power Plant Project Analysis of Alternatives CHAPTER 6 ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVES The analysis of alternative has been conducted for the proposed project as follows: 6.1 POWER PLANT (1) Criteria for Location Selection: The reasons for alternative consideration of the project implementation within Chon Buri and Rayong Provinces are mainly due to high electricity demand of the provinces and the target area located is in vicinity of Bangkok, the national economic centre. The advantages of such location for the provinces and for the entire nation are as follows: Majority of the Small Power Producers (SPP) are mostly located in the area of Industrial Estate or Industrial Park, where high electricity demand from industries in the area exists. Insufficient electricity in the Industrial area may cause black-out or electricity shortage which directly affects the industries, and local people. All of the Independent Power Producers (IPP) supply their electricity to EGAT to help maintaining national power stability. In order to conduct the project implementation with least impacts on the environment and make feasible the design and investment, the consideration of project site location alternatives is an extremely important procedure. Meanwhile, the Office of the Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning has specified the concept for studying alternative location of project site which is a process for initial screening for marking decision to choose the most suitable location of the project area. However, the project implementation may cause direct impacts to environmental quality and any vulnerable environmental parameters such as air quality, water quality, and community etc., during construction and operation periods. Those impacts may result in concerns about wastewater quality and air quality. Thus, the project site location selection must be thoughtfully conducted to prevent and mitigate any impacts to community and its environment. In addition, the selected location must possess feasible engineering, construction and maintenance as well as appropriate investment. Accordingly, the criteria of the project location consideration are specified as follows: Mainly utilize the areas of the industrial parks to mitigate impacts on people’s land use Avoid historic areas or archaeological sites Located in the areas with energy network or natural gas pipeline Have feasible engineering for both construction and maintenance RNP/ENV-P/P02810/FR (ADB)/RE61022-Chap6 Page 6-1 Environmental Report for submittal to ADB Chapter 6 Sriracha Power Plant Project Analysis of Alternatives Have enough basic infrastructure to support the need of the project Cause the least impact on sensitive environmental areas such as communities, religious places, schools, governmental offices and hospitals Avoid the areas specified in the attachment of the Notification of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment as specific conservative areas which have been protected by laws. The project location selection has been conducted based on the above mentioned criteria. The selected project site is in the area of the Hemaraj ESIE which has been developed to support and facilitate industrial plants with provided basic infrastructure facilities. Furthermore, the environmental impact assessment report of the Hemaraj ESIE was amended the project description and was approved by the Office of the Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning as indicated in the official letter No. TorSor 1009.3/10241 dated August 26, 2015. Moreover, further consideration on other related issues can be summarized as follows: According to a consideration on laws of city planning and prescription on future land use of Chon Buri and Rayong Provinces, the project location is not included in the boundary of the Comprehensive Master Plan. In addition, the location of the project is within the area which has been specifically developed for industry. Hence, this mitigates any impacts on community and other areas. According to a consideration of areas with energy network or natural gas pipeline, the location of the project is near the natural gas pipeline of the Petroleum Authority of Thailand (PPT) Co., Ltd. (Public). Additionally, the project location is near the electricity transmission line of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand. (2) Criteria for Fuel Selection: Natural gas is an extremely important source of energy in terms of reducing environmental pollution. Thus, the use of gas turbines and steam turbines are accepted as major source of electricity generation. Particularly high efficiencies can be achieved through combining gas turbines with a steam turbine in combined cycle mode. Natural gas burns cleaner than other fossil fuels, such as oil and coal, and produces less carbon dioxide per unit energy released. For an equivalent amount of heat, burning natural gas produces about 30% less carbon dioxide than burning petroleum and about 45% less than burning coal. Combined cycle power generation using natural gas is thus the cleanest source of power available using fossil fuels, and this technology is widely used wherever gas can be obtained at a reasonable cost. RNP/ENV-P/P02810/FR (ADB)/RE61022-Chap6 Page 6-2 Environmental Report for submittal to ADB Chapter 6 Sriracha Power Plant Project Analysis of Alternatives (3) Criteria for Technology Selection: According to the project location consideration coupling with the project development friendly to environment and community for sustainability, the project has adopted the criteria for alternative consideration defined by the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) to appraise alternative methods of the project implementation. So, factors adopted by the project for consideration on methods of project implementation are as follows: (a) Electricity Generation Technologies Currently, electricity generation technologies are divided into 3 main types and the details of each alternative power plant are as follows: Fossil Fuel Power Plant Recently, fossil fuel power plant is mostly utilized. This power plant is a system of devices for the conversion of fossil fuel energy to mechanical energy that drives electric generator. Fossil fuel power plant can be divided by types of machinery as the following: Steam Turbine Power Plant A principle of steam turbine power plant is to boil water to become superheated steam at extremely high temperature and high pressure in order that the steam drives the steam turbine connecting to an electric generator for generating electricity. After the steam expands through the turbine, it exits the turbine, then, it is cooled and condensed back to water in the cooling system. This condensate is then pumped to the boiler for boiling in order that steam repeatedly drives the steam turbine. Combined Cycle Power Plant Combined cycle power plant is more efficient than steam turbine power plant because the combined cycle power plant has 2 steps for transmitting heat energy to mechanical energy. An additional part of the combined cycle power plant, which is more than steam turbine power plant, is a gas turbine. Commonly used fuel is natural gas or diesel oil. At first step, natural gas or diesel oil will be injected into combustion chamber, generating hot gas with high pressure exhausts. The hot gas will drive gas turbine; consequently, it produces two-third of energy. Hot gas which passes through gas turbine is still high in temperature. Consequently, it can be used for boiling water (Heat Recovery Steam Generator). Then, vapor is used for driving gas turbine and generating one-third of energy. This type of power plant is commonly found in Thailand such as Rayong, Wang Noi and Kheang Koi 2 power plants. Gas Turbine Power Plant Gas turbine power plant is composed of gas turbine which is similar to a combined cycle power plant, but without boiler. However, hot gas exhausted by the gas turbine is discharged without reuse. Accordingly, producing cost of this power RNP/ENV-P/P02810/FR (ADB)/RE61022-Chap6 Page 6-3 Environmental Report for submittal to ADB Chapter 6 Sriracha Power Plant Project Analysis of Alternatives plant is high if it uses diesel oil as fuel. However, producing cost of the power plant will be a little cheaper if it uses natural gas as fuel. This type of power plant will be operated only during high demand of electricity because it can be rapidly started as well as stopped. However, the efficiency of this power plant is lower than that of a steam turbine power plant and that of a combined cycle power plant. This power plant is low in efficiency, nevertheless, electric generating system still needs this power plant to generate electricity during short period of peak electricity demand. The gas turbine will stop generating electricity when electricity demand becomes low. Currently, gas turbine power plants in operation are such as Lan Krabue Power Plant, Surat Thani Power Plant, Wellgrow SPP2 Rayong Province power plants, etc. Diesel Engine Power Plant Diesel engine power plant uses diesel engine as a source of energy. This type of power plant is small in size, and electricity producing cost is high. Currently, in Thailand, this type of power plant is no longer used excepted for the power plant of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand in Mae Hong Son Province.