BY JORDEENE B. LAGARE |Manila Times
MAUBAN, Quezon: San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co. (SBPL) inaugurated on Tuesday its 500-megawatt (MW) supercritical coal-fired power plant, a first in the Philippines.
The P52.6-billion power plant of SBPL — a joint venture of Meralco PowerGen Corp., the power generation arm of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), and New Growth BV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Electricity Generating Public Co. Ltd. of Thailand — is now providing baseload capacity to the Luzon grid.
POWER PLAYERS (From left) San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co. (SBPL) General Manager Frank Thiel; PNOC EC WEBSITE Mayor Marita Llamas of Mauban, Quezon; Thai Ambassador to the Philippines Vasin Ruangprateepsaeng; Meralco PowerGen Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer Rogelio Singson; Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Agnes Devanadera; Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi; Electricity Generating Public Co. Ltd. (EGCO) Vice Chairman Jaruwan Ruangswadipong, Senior Executive Vice President for Business Development International John Palumbo and EGCO President Jakgrich Pibulpairoj; and SBPL President and MGen Senior Vice President Marcos Yorobe pose for photos during the inauguration of a 500-megawatt supercritical coal-fired plant in Mauban.
SBPL shall sell the electricity generated by the plant to Meralco under a 20-year power supply agreement (PSA) approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in May 2015.
The coal facility, whose commercial operations started on September 26, currently generates power for Luzon – which accounts for about 72 percent of the country’s domestic product output.
MGen President and Chief Executive Officer Rogelio Singson said the plant uses a high efficiency, low emissions (HELE) coal technology that could reduce carbon dioxide emissions and improve the efficiency of the power plant, producing more amount of energy with less coal.
In his keynote speech, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said the 500-MW facility will help provide much needed power in the country, most especially in Luzon, as the Duterte administration continues to realize its Build, Build, Build program.
ERC Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer Agnes Devanadera said that because of such facilities, Mauban has been transformed into a vibrant and progressive community.
SBPL said the coal plant was partly funded by a P42.15-billion project finance facility, making it the country’s largest all-peso transaction to date that was put together by a consortium of local banks.
A consortium of South Korea’s Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd. and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. is SBPL’s engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project.
The ERC earlier granted a provisional authority to operate (PAO), instead of certificate of compliance (CoC), to SBPL pending the completion of other requirements.
Under Republic Act 9136, or the “Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001,” generation companies need to obtain a CoC from the agency before commencing commercial operations of their power plants, provided they secure health, safety and environmental clearances from the appropriate government agencies.
“A PAO has to be issued instead of a CoC [certificate of compliance] in view of the other requirements which must be submitted within a specific period of time,” Devanadera had said.
SBPL originally scheduled the coal plant’s commercial operation on September 15 but was deferred following questions raised by the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) on SBPL’s utilization of water rights.
“We were able to provide adequate, factual answers immediately and NWRB responded also as promptly. Now, they are privy to the urgency of the power situation at hand, and, hopefully, gained new insights that will help them be more circumspect in their succeeding engagements within the power industry or beyond,” Meralco Vice
President and head of Regulatory Management Jose Ronald Valles said in a statement last month.
Nonetheless, Meralco has lauded the regulator’s “swift decision” to allow SBPL to begin operations of the coal plant that would prove critical in the coming months to augment the country’s existing power supply.
Meralco shares went up by P2 or 0.55 percent to close at P367 apiece on Tuesday.