First Gen Corp. of the Lopez Group is in talks with global energy powerhouse Siemens AG and other companies for the company’s planned 1,200-megawatt natural gas plant expansion.
“We have said before that we have plans to build at least two new combined cycle units in Batangas… We have pre-invested in infrastructure to allow that to happen quickly. For example, we’ve done piling, foundations and even installed common water intake at the structures,” said First Gen executive vice president and chief commercial officer Jonathan Russell in a statement.
“We are planning to add roughly two new 600 MW units. Siemens is one of the companies we are talking with in doing that using their new H class machines an upgrade of the San Gabriel units but with higher output and better performance,” said Russell.
First Gen’s 1,000-MW Santa Rita natural gas plant in Batangas was built by a consortium led by Siemens under a fixed-price, turnkey engineering, procurement and construction contract. Operations and maintenance of the plant is done by Siemens Power Operations Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Siemens.
First Gen’s 500-MW San Lorenzo combined-cycle natural gas-fired power plant uses Siemens v84.3A gas turbines. Similar to the Santa Rita plant, it was built by Siemens under a fixed price, turnkey EPC contract. SPOI also performs the O&M of the plant.
Meanwhile, the 414-MW San Gabriel power plant uses Siemens’ SCC6-8000H combined-cycle gas turbine. The plant was constructed full turnkey EPC contract with Siemens AG. The O&M of the plant is also being performed by SPOI.
“We’ve been very happy with Siemens as a technical partner. They build a very good product and they’ve done a good job in operating and maintaining it,” Russell said.
Brian Bryne, CEO Region Asia Power Generation Services, Siemens Ptd Ltd., is looking at building on the successful relationship of Siemens and First Gen in the future.
“We’ve been a long-time supporter of First Gen and we’re looking at doing so in the future,” Byrne said.