"We are currently negotiating with the Shell group to help in the rehabilitation of the Biñan-Dasmarinas line to allow a smooth dispatch of power coming from the Ilijan power plant," he said.
The 1,200 megawatt (MW) Ilijan gas-fired power facility is a project of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) and Korea Electric Corp. (Kepco). It is one of the power plants that gets natural gas from the Shell group’s Malampaya Deep Water Gas-to-Power project.
Ortiz said they expect the signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) within this month.
The Transco chief, however, did not give details on the extent of assistance the Shell group would extend to the project.
The improvement of the Biñan-Dasmarinas transmission line, which is part of the Batangas Transmission Reinforcement Project (BTRP), is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2004.
The completion of the BTRP, on the other hand, will run from January 2004 to December 2005 for the setting up of the transmission lines and substations.
Specifically, the San Lorenzo to Batangas transmission lines will be completed by January 2004 following the auction conducted last Jan. 23.
The other BTRP transmission line projects and their projected time of completion are: Batangas to New Makban (December 2004); New Makban to Calamba Tower (June 2004); Calamba Tower to Biñan (August 2004).
The substation projects under the BTRP include the Batangas substation which will be completed by February 2005; New Makban (May 2005) and Binan (December 2005).