By Danessa O. Rivera (The Philippine Star) | Updated November 25, 2015 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - The local unit
of American energy giant AES Corp. is earmarking at least $700 million for the
initial 300-megawatt (MW) expansion of the 630-MW Masinloc coal-fired power
plant in Zambales, a ranking official said yesterday.
The company has decided to start
with a 300-MW single unit expansion from the original plan of 600 MW, AES
Philippines managing director Neeraj Bhat said on the sidelines of a forum
organized by the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines yesterday.
“Right now, we’re going to start
with 300 MW and as we line up contracts, we have the option to go for the full
600 MW,” he said.
For the initial 300 MW, investment
cost is pegged “north of $700 million” which will be a combination of 70
percent debt and 30 percent equity, the company official noted.
“(Debt) will be locally funded by
local banks. Signing will be very soon, before the end of the year,” Baht said.
Meanwhile, equity will be shouldered
by the project proponents.
AES has a 51-percent stake in the
plant while Electricity Generating Public Co. Ltd. (EGCO) Group of Thailand has
41 percent and International Finance Corp. (IFC), eight percent.
Bhat said the Masinloc expansion is
on track for full-swing construction in the first quarter of 2016, but early
works will be commenced towards year-end.
“We’ve signed a number of power
sales agreements with northern Luzon and some other customers so we expect that
to enter construction very soon with limited works this year and to be online
in early 2019,” Bhat said.
AES is also close to sealing a deal
with an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor, which the
company official declined to name.
“We’re signing very shortly. It’s an
international quality. We haven’t publicly disclosed it yet but it’s...a
Western and high quality EPC contractor that’s done a lot of work with us. We
have a strong relationship,” Bhat noted.
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