The opposition Democrat Party has urged the government to come up with a clear plan to deal with the chronic gas supply shortage expected in April.
Energy Minister Pongsak Raktapongpaisal said on Saturday measures will be needed to cope with a gas shortage as supply drops from neighbouring countries.
Households and state agencies will be asked to reduce electricity consumption to ensure there is enough left over for the manufacturing and business sectors.
The minister said an anchoring accident damaged the Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline last month, reducing gas supply by 270 million cubic feet per day. Meanwhile, maintenance of a gas platform in Myanmar, which supplies a quarter of Thailand's gas, is scheduled from April 4-12.
It will cut gas supply to the country by 1,100 million cubic feet per day.
The Energy Ministry said it will exercise a contingency plan to cope with the crisis on March 13.
Democrat deputy leader Alongkorn Ponlaboot said the government was unprepared to handle an energy crisis.
He said the government should implement its contingency plan at the end of this month.
A public campaign was also needed to raise awareness of what could be an energy crisis, Mr Alongkorn said.
Mr Pongsak should negotiate with Myanmar to start drilling rig maintenance on April 6, a Saturday, instead of April 4 which is a day on which energy consumption typically peaks to about 26,500 megawatts.
On April 4, Thailand's energy reserves would drop to a record low of only 2%, or 500 megawatts, and if power plants failed, the entire country could face a blackout, he said.
The minister should request a meeting with Myanmar leaders, not just order a ministerial official to hold talks.
He said Thailand should send a team to Myanmar to support the maintenance of the drilling rig.
While state power utilities cope with disruption each year by increasing generation from other sources such as hydroelectric dams or fuel oil, Mr Pongsak said he was concerned those steps might not be sufficient this year.
Manoon Siriwan, an independent energy expert, said Thailand has relied too heavily on natural gas for power generation.
"This causes a high risk to the nation's energy security," he said, adding that gas from Myanmar accounts for about 25% of the country's total electricity generation.
He said this year will be the third time the nation has faced a gas shortage crisis in the past five years. The first time was when a technical problem in the gas transmission system from Myanmar occurred in April 2008.
The second time was when the PTT gas pipeline in the Gulf of Thailand was damaged in an anchoring accident in June 2011.
Mr Manoon said Thailand has limited opportunity to diversify fuels used in electricity generation. Coal-fired, hydro, and nuclear power plant projects have faced strong opposition.