Electricity consumption in Thailand peaked at a new high of 36,699.9 megawatts at 9pm on Monday night, according to Veerapat Kiatfuengfoo, spokesman for the Energy Ministry.

He said that power consumption on Monday night is the highest ever in Thailand, as he attributed the unprecedented demand to the extremely hot weather.

He also said that solar cells do not help to satisfy the energy demand because they do not generate electricity at night.

He noted, however, that Thailand’s reserve margin, or the amount of unused available capability of an electric power system (at peak load for a utility system) as a percentage of total capability this year has dropped to about 25.8%, from about 30.9% last year, adding that the Energy Ministry is closely monitoring power consumption and energy reserves to cope with any emergency which may arise.

Peak energy consumption in the past five years was as follows:

• 35,830 megawatts at 9.41 pm on May 6 2023.
• 30,936.5 megawatts at 8.49 pm on April 23rd 2022.
• 31,023 megawatts at 2.49 pm on March 31st 2021.
• 30,342 megawatts at 2.14 pm on March 13th 2020.
• 32,273 megawatts at 2.27 pm on May 3rd 2019.