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Currently Thailand is using more energy than it can produce. To accommodate this, Thailand has to import electricity from its neighboring countries (Laos being the major one). As a result, domestic utility costs in Thailand are expensive. Also, to try to encourage a policy of saving on utility use in Thailand, the utilities companies in Thailand impose penalty amounts dependent on use - e.g. if you spend $20 on electricity, then you will not get the same amount of electricity provided to you with the second $10 as you did with the first, because you are now paying a premium on use.

Moreover, to try and reduce Thailand's huge utilities usage, the Thai Government had adopted a policy of home "conservation"; for example, turning off lights that are not being used. Many Thais are in favour of this policy. A case in point: if you work in an office, you are encouraged to turn the lights off in your room when you are not present in the room. Likewise, all office employees are encouraged to turn their computers off before going home. To do otherwise will be frowned upon.

Similarly, periodically the Thai Government will impose water bans on certain districts over the course of a weekend so that the whole of that district will have its water supply turned off (usually for a period of no more than 24 hours). The consequence of this is that most houses and homes in Thailand contain water stored in drums and buckets which can be used for washing should a water outage occur.

Other than that, currently all of the utilities companies in Thailand are state run, but most have now been made into public companies pending their imminent privatization.

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