Don’t wait the last minute when everybody will rush in panic with their wet back and sweaty armpits to the closest big C . Songkran is gonna be hot as usual, but it might be even hotter this year as you could be asked to shut down the air-con to avoid power outage.

Myanmar is shutting the gas pipe to Thailand for maintenance next April just when Bangkok reach its best simmering atmosphere, and about 25% of Thailand’s gas supply comes from Myanmar, amounting to 1.1 billion cubic feet per day. Overall, Thailand consumes 4.2 billion to 4.4 billion cubic feet per day. That a lot of gas, and most of it is burned to produce electricity.

Energy minister Pongsak Raktapongpaisal will call on a meeting with related agencies next week in preparation to handle Myanmar’s gas supply suspension from April 4-12.

Myanmar plans to suspend natural gas delivery of 1.1 billion cubic feet per day to Thailand in order to repair drilling rigs at the Yadana gas field.

The meeting will discuss measures to be put in place in case of an emergency, the minister said. Those measures include sourcing alternative fuel to offset shortfall and asking for cooperation from the public to reduce electricity usage.

Agencies concerned will be instructed to reserve liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports.The possibility to resume operations of mothballed diesel power plants will be discussed at the meeting, he said adding that switching to fuel oil and diesel to produce electricity will increase costs