By Nelson Constantino
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, (PNA) — The Mindanao grid is expecting an additional 515 megawatts of power by 2016 courtesy of three committed projects which could offset the prevailing supply gap in the region which resulted to massive brownouts.
The Department of Energy (DOE), in its presentation before the Senate finance committee, said that for the entire country the aggregate investment for all committed power projects across grids already reached P178.4 billion, according to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) presentation to the Senate finance committee.
Of the total, Luzon grid power investments accounted for P90.7 billion and could yield additional 767.4 megawatts; while Visayas raked in P43.8 billion for 429.6MW; and Mindanao cornered P43.9 billion for 515MW.
The three power projects expected to be fully operational in the next three years are the 300MW coal plant of Therma South Inc. of the Aboitiz Group; 200MW coal plant of the Sarangani Energy Corporation of the Alcantara Group; and 15MW diesel plant of the Mapalad Energy Generating Corporation.
The target commissioning of these “firmed up” power projects would be from 2013 until the year 2016, putting in the much-needed additional megawatts in all three major power grids.
To be labeled as “committed project” would be a very significant development for the industry because this is the phase in project implementation wherein construction and commercial commissioning can already be set certain.
The committed power projects for Luzon are the 270-MW phases 1 and 2 Pulang Bato coal facility of South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation of the Ayala Group and Trans-Asia joint venture; 300-MW Calaca plant expansion of the Consunji group; 20MW Maibarara geothermal power project; 67.5MW Pililla wind project of Alternergy Wind One Corporation; 9.9MW biomass plant of San Jose City I Power Corporation; 18MW biomass facility of Isabela Biomass Energy Corporation; and 82MW coal plant of Anda Power Corporation.
In that project list are two renewable energy (RE) ventures which have applied to avail of the feed-in-tariff (FIT) system. These are the wind project of Alternergy and the Isabela biomass plant.
The roster of committed projects for Visayas grid covered the 270MW coal plant project of Palm Thermal Consolidated Holdings Corporation; 82MW coal plant of the Toledo Power Company; 50MW Nasulo geothermal project of Energy Development Corporation; 8.0MW Villasiga hydroelectric facility of Sunwest Water & Electric Co. Inc.; 3.6MW biomass plant of Asian Energy System; and the 16MW biomass project of San Carlos BioPower Inc.
On indicative projects, the energy department logged proposed investments for Luzon grid with total installed capacity 10,152.5MW – targeted for implementation from 2015 until 2020.
Prospective projects for Visayas grid could yield additional 718MW; while Mindanao grid penciled in capacity additions of 2,534.6 megawatts.