Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Meralco unit raising P40b to expand 455-MW coal plant

By MST Business | Oct. 29, 2014 at 11:01pm

San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co., a power company majority-owned by Meralco PowerGen Corp., is raising P40 billion to finance the expansion of a 455-megawatt coal plant in Mauban, Quezon.

“We are raising about P40 billion from the debt market,” Meralco PowerGen senior vice president Angelo Lantin told reporters. The amount will be used to double the capacity of the existing 455-MW coal-fired power plant of Quezon Power Philippines Ltd., which is partially controlled by Electricity Generating Public Co. Ltd. of Thailand.

Meralco PowerGen, the power generation arm of power distributor Manila Electric Co., owns 51 percent of the San Buenaventura coal project while Egco’s subsidiary New Growth B.V. owns the remaining 49 percent. Lantin did not disclose the actual cost of the plant construction.

“We are finalizing our EPC [engineering, procurement and construction] with our preferred contractor. We are also in the process of selecting arrangers for the project financing,” Lantin said.

Meralco president Oscar Reyes said the San Buenaventura plant would help ensure the country’s long-term power supply.

“We are fully aware of prevailing power supply and demand situation where I think the Luzon grid faces fairly thin reserves until new power plant capacities come into place,” Reyes said.

“We need to have this project before the summer of 2018 so that we have some degree of relief from the risk of red alert as demand continues to increase,” he said.

San Buenaventura signed a 20-year power supply agreement with Meralco for the sale and purchase of the plant’s entire output. source

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