Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp., a wholly-owned unit of Semirara Mining and Power Corp. of the Consunji Group, plans to start operations of the first unit (150 megawatt) of its 300-MW Calaca power plant expansion by the end of April.
“We’re nearing start of operations,” Southwest Luzon chief executive Isidro Consunji told reporters in an interview.
He said full commercial operations would be known after the commissioning, or when technical issues were resolved.
He said the second 150-MW unit will be completed in June this year.
“We’re a bit delayed,” Consunji said, adding additional power supply from the plant will help address demand during the dry months.
Southwest Luzon is expanding the existing 600-MW Calaca coal-fired power plant in Batangas in phases.
The current Calaca facility consists of two 300-MW generating units and is designed to utilize local coal from the Semirara mines in Antique.
DMCI Holdings Inc., the holding company of the Consunji Group, bought the Calaca plant from the government in July 2009 with a bid price of $361.7 million.
The first phase of the expansion involves the construction of two units of 150 MW each while the second stage will construct two single units of 350 MW each, bringing the total expansion to 1,000 MW.