Banpu Power Plc (BPP), the power generation arm of non-oil energy conglomerate Banpu Plc, is looking for new business opportunities in the US under its plan to make America its "second home" for energy business expansion.
The move comes after BPP completed a share purchase deal worth US$430 million, or around 14.29 billion baht, to acquire Temple 1, a gas-fired power plant in Texas.
Its parent company earlier acquired gas businesses in Texas's Barnett Shale field and Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale field.
The purchases will pave the way for Banpu to have a base for energy businesses in the US, alongside its headquarters in Thailand where the company was founded, said Kirana Limpaphayom, chief executive of BPP.
He said the company is conducting a due diligence review of several US projects under its asset acquisition plan.
Mr Kirana declined to name companies, saying only that the assets were gas-fired power plants and renewable power plants.
Next month BPP is scheduled to open a representative office of BPP USA Co to oversee new asset acquisitions and development projects.
"We are building a team of workers in Texas to prepare for new asset acquisitions," said Mr Kirana.
BPP aims to be an electricity supplier under conditions set by the grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which buys electricity from various sources ranging from fossil fuel-fired power plants to renewable power generation facilities.
Mr Kirana said the company sees an opportunity to develop new power generation facilities in Texas as a number of existing power plants, with a combined electricity generation capacity of 6.3 gigawatts, are scheduled to retire between 2023 and 2026.
BPP is also looking for new business opportunities provided by other US grid operators including PJM, a regional transmission organisation that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia.
The company aims to increase the electricity generation capacity at its Asia-Pacific power plants to 5.3GW by 2025, up from 3.2GW.
