Meralco Power Gen eyes construction of plants next year

MANILA, Philippines - Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen), the power generating unit of power distribution giant Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), has committed to move forward with the construction of three of its planned coal-fired power plants by next year.

These are the 455-megawatt (MW) San Buenaventura Power Ltd. (SBPL) project in Quezon; the Redondo Peninsula Energy (RP Energy) project in Subic, Zambales; and the 2x600 MW Atimonan One Energy project in Quezon.

For the SBPL project, financial close and issuance of notice to proceed is expected within the last quarter of 2015, MGen senior vice president Angelito U. Lantin said.

“Currently, we’re doing site preparation works. Full-turn over of site to engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor will be in the first half of 2016 and commercial operations in the first half of 2019,” he said.

MGen has awarded the EPC contract to a consortium of Japanese and Korean contractors and equipment suppliers.

SBPL is a joint venture of MGen with New Growth B.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Thailand’s Energy Generating Co.

Meanwhile, Lantin said RP Energy is still working on the right-of-way (ROW) of transmission line connections, which will finally determine whether it would build a 300 MW plant or 600 MW in the next few months.

“This is work in progress in cooperation with the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines,” he said. “We hope to achieve clarity in the ROW in the next few months.”

Being considered in the ROW of transmission lines are the ancestral domains and protected areas.

“We are still targeting to start construction in the first quarter of 2016 and completion target of second half of 2019,” Lantin said.

RP Energy is a consortium composed of MGen, Aboitiz Power Corp. and Taiwan Cogeneration International Corp.

Finally, the Atimonan project would start early works in 2016 following the completion of the feasibility studies by year-end, Lantin said.

“Early works are targeted to start early next year and this pertains to construction of the site, access road and resettlement for the communities that will be displaced by the power plant while completion is targeted for late 2020,” he said.