First Gen, British Gas to build 550-MW power plant

First Gen Corp. and its partner British Gas (BG) Plc. are firming up the construction of a 550-megawatt (MW) Greenfield combined-cycle gas-fired power plant.

First Gen vice chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Peter Garrucho Jr. said the new San Gabriel natural gas-run power facility will be located adjacent to the existing natural power plants of First Gas Power Corp. (FGPC)-Santa Rita and San Lorenzo plants.

Garrucho said the plant will utilize domestic natural gas from Malampaya field and/or imported liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The FGC official said they hope to complete the project in four years.

"We expect San Gabriel to come on stream in the latter part of 2010," he said. The new power plant is expected to cost $400 million.

In December 2005, the project obtained its environment compliance certificate from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. 

According to Garrucho, the local host communities have endorsed the project.

First Natgas Power Corp. (FNPC), one of the First Gen subsidiaries, is being proposed to operate the San Gabriel project.

FNPC is currently conducting a feasibility study for the said project and has initiated the process required to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals.

In October 2005, First Gen signed a memorandum of understanding with Marubeni Corp. of Japan to pursue non-gas power projects.

Aside from Marubeni, BG Plc. will continue to be First Gen’s partner in these projects.

The partnership with Marubeni, he said, will explore a number of power generation opportunities, especially in geothermal and coal where Marubeni is already active in the Philippines.

He said First Gen is also looking at distributed power generation, including but not limited to co-generation facilities, for industrial and commercial establishments.

"We expect some projects to materialize in 2006," he said.

First Gen is the largest Filipino majority-owned and controlled independent power producer (IPP) in the Philippines, with installed capacity of 1,726.6 MW as of end-December 2005.

It operates the 1,000-MW Santa Rita gas power plant; 500-MW San Lorenzo gas plant; 225-MW diesel-fired Bauang Power Plant; 1.6-MW Agusan hydro-electric power plant.