The meeting of the Supervisory Committee for Environmental Impact Prevention, Mitigation, and Monitoring Plan for the Coal Terminal Project of BLCP Power Company Limited No. 61-4/2559 was held on Friday, December 16, 2016, at Meeting Room 204, Map Ta Phut Industrial Port Office, Rayong Province, with Mr. Witool Yootim, Deputy Governor (Operations Line 3) of the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand, as Chairman. The meeting acknowledged and approved the minutes of meeting No. 60-3/2559 and acknowledged the revision of the committee's composition and authority, which includes supervising the project to comply with environmental measures and holding meetings every 3 months.
BLCP Power Company Limited summarized the overview of the power plant project, which is a coal-fired power plant with a total generating capacity of 1,434 MW, located in the Map Ta Phut Industrial Port area, and commenced electricity generation in 2006, using Bituminous coal from Australia. The project has installed pollution control equipment such as Electrostatic Precipitators (ESP) and Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) systems to control environmental impacts, and continuously monitors environmental quality in accordance with the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report.
The results of environmental quality monitoring in October 2016 found that the amount of air pollutants discharged from the stacks of both power plant units, ambient air quality at 6 stations, general noise levels around the power plant and Wat Takuan, wastewater quality from the wastewater treatment system, water quality discharged into the cooling water discharge canal, seawater temperature within a 500-meter radius, and seawater quality around Map Ta Phut Bay, all indices met the criteria specified in the EIA report and standards set by the Ministry of Industry Notification and the National Environmental Board Notification.
Regarding the operation of the power plant and coal terminal during September to November 2016, a total of 1,328,545 tons of coal were docked, with an average sulfur content in coal of 0.41% and a maximum of 0.51%, which remained within EIA requirements. Total net electricity generation was 1,462,569 MWh-net for Unit 1 and 1,464,077 MWh-net for Unit 2. A total of 153,441.97 tons of fly ash and 18,600.64 tons of bottom ash were exported. Additionally, 37.3 tons of hazardous waste and 235 tons of other non-hazardous waste were managed during the same period.
The project has fully complied with environmental impact mitigation measures, such as installing water sprayers and dust control nets to prevent dust, maintaining machinery to reduce noise, systematic wastewater and waste management, controlling seawater temperature and quality, and limiting truck speeds. In addition, continuous Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities have been carried out, such as opening the power plant for visits, with a total of 2,243 visitors during Sep-Dec 2016; activities to create careers and income for the community, such as the organic farming project; and local tax remittances; as well as various social and environmental development activities, such as volunteer activities, sports support, and mobile medical units. The next meeting of the Supervisory Committee is scheduled for March 2017.