Mandated shorter hours may be coming - including the bars

[Gaybutton]

While everybody seems to want longer bar opening hours, they might actually be forced into shorter hours, along with many other kinds of venues.

I hope we're not also facing the possibility of blackouts and brownouts.
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Opening hours for bars, malls, and many other venues could be shrunk to save electricity, according to the Thai Energy Ministry

By Tanakorn Panyadee

9 November 2022

The Thai Energy Ministry is eyeing to forcefully mandate an electricity-saving campaign for households and businesses such as shopping malls, gas stations, or nightlife venues, to battle the rising prices of liquefied natural gas (LNG) used in national power generation.

The LNG prices may keep rising in the winter due to the Russo-Ukrainian war, the baht’s depreciation, and higher demand for energy in Europe, said Kulit Sombatsir, permanent secretary of the Energy Ministry.

If the LNG prices climb to $50 per metric million British thermal unit (MMBTU) for consecutively more than two weeks, the electricity-saving campaign, which is usually adopted voluntarily by people, will be made mandatory, Kulit said.

The move was approved on Monday by the National Energy Policy Council (NEPC) chaired by Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha.

If the voluntary measures becomes a mandate, businesses such as shopping malls, gas stations, bars, or nightclubs may be told to close early, although the exact hours or venues have yet to be announced.

This measure is also applied to unnecessary lighting, such as large illuminated billboards, as well as air conditioners in buildings that might need to be adjusted to 27 degrees Celsius.

The possible reduced opening hours for nightlife places has already sparked an objection from Thanakorn Kuptajit, an advisor to the Thai Alcoholic Beverage Business Association, who said this move would rather undermine the recovery of the economy as Thailand is in high season and be extremely unpopular with tourists.

https://thepattayanews.com/2022/11/09/o ... -ministry/

[bi-top]

Bars, maybe.
Restaurants, maybe.
As if that would really help.

Malls, NEVER. There is way too much political power in those malls.

[Jun]

The obvious short term answer for the shopping malls is to turn the temperature up by a few degrees. In the medium term, get them all covered in solar panels.

Most of the bars in Pattaya are open fronted and I don't think they use aircon. Lighting energy consumption ought to be minimal.
The obvious thing to do with lighting is to have a campaign to get businesses, hotels etc to replace their old fashioned incandescent lighting with LED light bulbs. It's surprising how common incandescent bulbs are in Thailand and once they have generated all that waste heat, it's more work for the aircon.