In 2012, the Ministry of Energy (Thailand) together with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) prepared the Thailand Power Development Plan 2012-2030 (PDP2010 Revision 3) to formulate power system development framework. The PDP2010 Revision 3 was endorsed by the National Energy Policy Council (NEPC) on June 8, 2012 and acknowledged by the Cabinet on June 19, 2012.

Since the end of year 2014, Sub-committee on Load Forecast and Power Development Plan Formulation considered developing a new PDP to respond to changes in economic and infrastructure development and ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Therefore, the Ministry of Energy (Thailand) developed 5 integration master plans as follows: (1) Thailand Power Development Plan: PDP, (2) Energy Efficiency Development Plan: EEDP, (3) Alternative Energy Development Plan: AEDP, (4) Natural Gas Supply Plan, and (5) Petroleum Management Plan. The new PDP called “Thailand Power Development Plan 2015-2036 (PDP2015)” focuses on (1) Energy Security: coping with the increasing power demand to correspond to National Economic and Social Development Plan and taking into account fuel diversification (2) Economy: maintaining an appropriate cost of power generation for long-term economic competitiveness (3) Ecology: lessening carbon dioxide intensity of power generation.

The themes of the PDP2015 emphasize on improving power system reliability by reducing dependence on natural gas power generation, increasing a share of coal power generation via clean coal technology, importing power from neighboring countries, and developing renewable energy. In addition, the plan aims on transmission and distribution system development in order to support for renewable energy development and ASEAN Economic Community.

Throughout the PDP2015 development process, useful comments and options obtained from all stakeholders were taken into account. Besides, public hearings for the draft of the PDP2015 were conducted on April 8 and 28, 2015 at Rama Garden Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand. Consequently, the Thailand Power Development Plan 2015-2036 (PDP2015) was considered and commented by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on May 6, 2015. The PDP2015 was endorsed by the National Energy Policy Council (NEPC) on May 14, 2015 and acknowledged by the Cabinet on June 30, 2015.