A 500-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Quezon province is set to start operations in the fourth quarter this year, augmenting electricity supply in the Luzon grid.
San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co., the owner and operator of the plant in Mauban, Quezon, said the construction of the facility was more than 97-percent completed.
SBPL is a joint venture of Meralco PowerGen Corp., the power generation arm of the Manila Electric Co., and New Growth BV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Electricity Generating Public Co. Limited of Thailand.
“The construction of the project has progressed 97.38 percent. The commercial operation date is scheduled in the fourth quarter of 2019,” Egco said in a report.
SBPL contracted 455 MW of the plant’s capacity to Meralco pursuant to a 20-year power supply agreement which can be extended for another five years.
Meralco PowerGen president Rogelio Singson confirmed that the SBPL project would go online in the final quarter of 2019.
“Yes, correct end of September,” Singson said when asked to comment.
SBPL tapped Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd. and Mitsubishi Corp. as its engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project.
Singson said the project initially encountered technical difficulties because there is an existing power plant of Quezon Power Philippines Ltd. in the Mauban site which meant that certain structures needed to be avoided.
“It was quite a challenge and we acknowledge it was a very difficult situation,” he said.
Singson said SBPL was in discussions with Daelim to resolve the issues related to the plant “to make sure we complete the project as soon as possible.”
The groundbreaking ceremony for the project was held in December 2015 which signaled the start of construction of the power facility to provide the baseload supply needed to serve electricity consumers in Luzon.
“The SBPL plant will be one of the first facilities in the Philippines to utilize the supercritical boiler technology leading to higher efficiency and significant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions in comparison to traditional boiler technology,” Egco president Chanin Chaonirattisai said earlier.
The San Buenaventura power plant is seen to play a crucial role as electricity demand grows, especially in Luzon which accounts for about 70 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
The project is also aligned with Meralco PowerGen’s goal to have a power generation portfolio of about 3,000 MW.