Bangkok--10 Apr--Index Living Mall
Mr.Ekalak Patamasatayasonthi, Senior Vice President for Business Development of Index Living Mall Co.,Ltd, revealed the company's long-term plan to save energy with an investment of more than 300 MB to install "Solar Roof" system on the roofs, starting at 6 factories and branches with need high power supply. The company expects that return of investment (ROI) will take 6 years. Moreover, cost of electricity consumption can be reduced over 34 MB annually.
As Index Living Mall has considered on the important of the reduction of the cost of electricity, which has increased gradually, as well as higher demand for the use of electricity, and climate change problem; thus, the company would like to be part of the private sector to help save energy and reduce global warming problem, which affect on ecological. The global warming will cause climate change and natural disasters, which affect on health and people living. Hence, the clean energy has been created. "Solar Roof" is one of effective energy saving method to not only help save energy but also save environment. The company, thus, will install "Solar Roof" on the roof with solar module, which are installed on the roofs of residence or buildings to receive solar power and invert from direct-current (DC) to alternating-current electricity (AC) for using in the next step. Initially, the "Solar Roof" installed at 2 factories situated in Mahachai, Samutsakorn and Rayong, as well as at 4 Index Living Mall Stores, located in Ratchapruk, Pattaya, Bangna, and Rama II branches. The company found that those factories and branches has high demand for electricity usage, which annual cost of electricity is average about 264 MB as detail as follows:
Places Electricity usage (kW) Solar Roof Cover area on roof (sq.m) Investment budget Money saving on electricity cost/ year(Baht)
(kWp) (Baht)
Mahachai Factory 18,500,000 2,937.60 18,200 114,566,400.- 13,500,000.-
Rayong Factory 9,243,000 1,571.40 9,700 61,284,600.- 7,200,000.-
Ratchapruk Branch 9,000,000 1,117.80 6,900 43,594,200.- 5,100,000.-
Pattaya Branch 1,800,000 496.80 3,000 19,375,200.- 2,300,000.-
Bangna Branch 2,5440,000 807.30 5,000 31,484,700.- 3,700,000.-
Rama II Branch 2,070,000 496.80 3,000 19,375,200.- 2,300,000.-
Total 66,053,000 kW or 264,212,000 Baht 7,427.70kWp 45,800 sq.m 289,680,300 Baht 34,100,000 Baht
Mr.Ekalak Patamasatayasonthi, Senior Vice President for Business Development of Index Living Mall Co.,Ltd, said that "Based on the estimation on electricity usage of Index Living Mall Co.,Ltd and subordinate companies, it is relatively high. Despite having a campaign to save energy, spending on electricity is still high. Consequence, the company has drawn long-term plan to reduce the cost of electricity by choosing to install a solar power system that converts sunlight into direct current electricity, which many countries in America and Europe are widely used because it is clean, economical, and can be installed independently. The government is also supporting the BOI's investment promotion measures, which can be used for tariff deduction worth up to 88 MB (within 3 years). The company has opted to use service from international standard guarantee, which is a pioneer of solar farms. This investment will help reduce huge amount of electricity consumption and save money in the long term, in particularly at Mahachai and Rayong factories since the production process needs high amount of electricity usage including the furniture production, which needs to use machine and require lot of power along the process of wood cutters - wood drill, furniture edging, wood vacuum cleaner, steel smelter, and cutting and sewing furniture, also at our stores, which are our stand-alone shops. Besides using spotlights, down-lights, which need high electricity to show our products at our stores and room setting, we also have electric appliances zone "Power One" which require high electricity consumption for testing electric appliances and turn on TV for all the time. Moreover, as our stores roof is quite high, it is one of factors to cause high electricity consumption. Nevertheless, to install the solar cell, we have not only considered on high cost of electricity, but also the factor to facilitate solar cell installation including roof space that is compatible with the installation of solar panels and area that can effectively receive sunlight."
Index Living Mall is expected that the plan will help save electricity cost worth up to 34 MB a year, from an average spending on electricity cost of 264 MB a year, or accounted by 13% saving per annum. The company is also expected to gain return of investment in the next 6 years on in 2023. Within 10 years or in 2027, the company is believe to save up to 330 MB for electricity cost and on tariff deduction from BOI's support measure. This long-term electricity saving plan will not only help save money, but also reduce risk of power outages in summer, which have high demand of electricity consumption, while also indirectly help reduce public electricity usage.