BCPG Plc, the power business arm of SET-listed Bangchak Petroleum Plc (BCP), has set aside a five-year investment budget (2017-22) of 60 billion baht to be spent on power generation and expansion abroad.
President and chief executive Bundit Sapianchai said 10 billion baht would be used next year, mostly on renewable energy projects overseas, including wind farm and solar projects.
"The targeted countries that BCPG expects to invest and expand in are Taiwan, the Philippines and South Korea as they have strong potential with substantial room for renewable energy business to grow," said Mr Bundit.
He said the projects the company expects to commence early next year involve renewable energy and energy storage.
For wind farm projects, BCPG plans to start investing in all three countries.
The company plans to invest in developing a power storage business to help store renewable power in batteries, which would serve its electricity-generating business.
"The energy storage project will be a joint venture with our partner in Korea," said Mr Bundit. He declined to give further details about energy storage or wind farm projects to be developed abroad.
BCPG has total power-generating capacity of 300 megawatts, which is expected to rise to 1,000MW by 2020.
Mr Bundit said BCPG has a new project scheduled to start commercial operation by the end of this year with power-generating capacity of 12MW, making total power generation in Thailand rise to 182MW by the end of this year.
It has another project in Japan with 26MW of capacity that is due for completion this year, he said.
"By next year, BCPG's power generation in Thailand and Japan should both rise to 200MW," said Mr Bundit.
Locally, the company expects to be granted a new licence to develop solar farms for agricultural cooperatives via the government's new round of bids totalling 519MW of capacity.
With a substantial rise in investment abroad, Mr Bundit expects the company's revenues to be split evenly from home and overseas next year.
"The company has been focusing on investment overseas as there are substantial opportunities to grow there, but we are also continuing our expansion here in Thailand as the government has issued several policies to support renewable energy," he said.
Total revenue this year may not reach its target of 3 billion baht because of rising development costs in Japan that would cut revenue by around 300 million baht, said Mr Bundit.
However, revenue should reach 3 billion next year because of rising power-generating capacity, he said.