Toledo power firm progress on sked

CEBU, Philippines – With the looming power crisis inching closer, officials of the Global Business Power Corporation (GBPc), the umbrella firm of the Toledo Power Company, gave the assurance that their project in Sangi, Toledo City is right on schedule.

GBPc president Jesus N. Alcordo said that after the project broke ground last January 2008, their developments are on track and a lot of equipments and fabrication have already been installed at the site including steam drums, boilers, and steel structures, among others.

Alcordo said that the first of the three 82 MW generators will be ready for testing in January of next year while the firing will be done in February and the synchronization will be by the end of that same month next year.

The second generator will be installed by June of 2010 and the third is scheduled on either September or October of next year.

Currently, the project is 15. 2 percent completed in terms of construction.

 For coal deliveries, a jetty or a pier is already constructed which can handle 65,000 tons of coal on a vessel.

 This 246-megawatts clean coal power plant project is a consortium composed of GBPC and the Aboitiz Power Corp., Vivant Energy Corp., and the Formosa Heavy Industries Corp. based in Taiwan and is under the newly Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registered Cebu Energy Development Corp. (CEDC).

Alcordo said that the total cost that will be acquired by the consortium in this project will cost around $450 million and they are expecting a 70 over 30 debt equity ratio.

He said that the shareholders will be taking a 100 percent peso financing so they will have the biggest peso loan which will be at around P16 billion.

“We go for peso financing so in this way, the ratio will be more stable and it will not go up and down with the dollar exchange rates. The only factor that will be affected by the exchange rate will be the spare parts and the fuel because these are imported,” said.

Alcordo revealed that aside from the consortium project in Toledo City, GBPC also have another similar facility to be put up in Iloilo City.

He said that the project will cost around $312 million and this project aims to fully address the energy concerns of the Visayas grid in terms of adequate power supply and reliability of power.

The Iloilo plant project has already started breaking ground and since it is located in a swampy area, they are already leveling and filling the ground to start its construction, said Alcordo.

The target completion of the GBCP power plant project in Iloilo is on July to August of 2010 and this will be beside the company’s existing plant in the area.

Global Business Power Corp. is a holding company that owns the Toledo Power Co. in Sangi and three other power companies in the Visayas. Formerly Mirant Global Corporation (MGC) which is owned and controlled by the Metrobank Group.

The company boasts a total of 227MW installed capacity in the Visayas Region and Mindoro Province and on top of this, two power plants with a combined capacity of 17. 5 MW have been installed in the Province of Aklan.