Electricity generation and distribution in Thailand: policy making, policy actors and conflict in the policy process

Abstract

Many analysts have attempted to develop a systematic approach towards understanding the public policy framework in Thailand, and the impact of policies on Thai society and the environment. However, approaches so far have been limited in scope, and little has been done to investigate Thailand's electricity development policy approach, and its impact on society and natural resources in Thailand. This thesis contributes to filling this knowledge gap through undertaking an analysis of the development of Thailand's electricity industry power generation policy, its institutions and the policy process. It also examines the policy actors working within the process, and their roles, power and influence, factors that have shaped the distinctive characteristics of the electricity industry in Thailand today, an industry that is being confronted by increased opposition to its development from a range of community groups concerned with adverse environmental and social impacts on it.

My research here uses Historical Institutionalism and Policy Network Analysis to guide the investigation. A qualitative research methodology, including the examination of documentary evidence and the interviewing of 25 key informants, was used to improve our knowledge of the policy process, and to reveal the nature of the conflicts that have emerged within the Thai policy-making bureaucracy, a bureaucracy that controls the electricity industry, and between these policy actors, the elected and military governments, and other parts of the Thai community.

My research found that the development of Thailand's electricity generation policy has been complex; influenced bysocio-economic and political factors, as well as by external factors such as conditionalities imposed by foreign governments and multinational lending agencies. These factors have constrained the political institutions and political elites who play a key role in setting the rules for the restructuring of the industry. As Thailand has developed to become more democratic, the emergence of new groups of policy-makers, such as elected-politicians and civil society, has brought about a change in electricity policy direction, and in the structure of the industry.

The research identified four key groups of policy actors participating in the Thai electricity policy arena, including first the 'old energy aristocrats'; officials in Electricity Generation Authority of Thailand (EGAT) who established the industry. They were followed by the officials in Energy Policy and Planning Office (EPPO) who had a more commercial orientation and who challenged the earlier ideas, leading to proposals to privatize the industry. Civic Society Organisations (CSOs) emerged in the 1970s to challenge the large energy projects proposed by the Government, those supported by elected-politicians, particularly the politicians from Thai Rak Thai Party that tried to take control of the industry for their own ends. The TRT interventing in the industry after it came to power in the 1990s. Each of these policy participants developed their own discourses to influence policy-making and public opinion.

To reveal the nature of the challenges faced in developing the electricity industry in Thailand, this thesis focuses on a number of case studies of large electricity development projects, including the Nam Choan and Pak Mun Dam Projects, the Prachub Kirikhan Power Plant Projects, and the Wiang Haeng Coal Mine Development Project. My studies reveal evidence of the significant negative impacts that these projects had and continue to have, on the communities and environment adjacent to them, and on Thai society more generally. These problems emerged due to the fact that the policy institutions were, and still are, dominated by technocrats and political elites, with limited public participation in either the policy decisions made, or the policy development process. My thesis concludes that conflicts in relation to the electricity industry policy process are likely to grow in future years, and so makes a number of suggestions as to how these issues might be addressed.