By Danessa Rivera (The
Philippine Star) | Updated July 8, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - There is no
imminent threat to the country’s power supply amid ample coal supply to power
up coal-fired power plants, more than a week after Indonesia banned its vessels
from entering Philippine territory, energy industry officials said yesterday.
While the ban on Indonesian
flag-bearing ships is a security concern, it would not negatively impact on the
country’s coal power supply, newly-installed energy chief Alfonso Cusi said.
He said the ban only covers
Indonesian-flagged vessels while the country’s coal supply is delivered by
bigger ships bearing other foreign flags.
“Those serving the coal plants, they
are being serviced by foreign flagged vessels other than Indonesia, which are
not covered by the ban,” Cusi said.
Indonesia is the country’s main
supplier of coal while the Philippines’ major source of electricity supply is
from coal-fired power plants, which are among the reasons why there were
speculations over the power supply situation.
DOE’s 2015 data showed Indonesia
accounts for 95 percent of the country’s total coal imports. In terms of coal
usage, 79.77 percent is used in power generation.
Currently, more than half of the country’s
power supply comes from coal-fired and diesel-fired power plants, 30 percent
from natural gas plants and 10 percent from renewables, which include
geothermal, wind, hydropower and solar.
In separate text messages to The
STAR, officials of key power players also echoed the Energy chief’s
pronouncements.
Semirara Mining and Power Corp.
chairman Isidro Consunji said the Indonesian ban does not affect most power
plants because they are using large ships.
“Only tug [boats] and barges are
affected. These are used mainly by cement plants [to ship coal],” he said.
Semirara is the country’s largest
coal producer and also owns 2x300 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plants in
Calaca, Batangas, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Sem-Calaca Power Corp.
Alsons Power Group, meanwhile, has
not experienced any interruption in coal supply after the ban, Alsons vice
president for business development Joseph Nocos said.
“The Indonesian ban on coal
shipments applies to vessels carrying the Indonesian flag. Our coal is delivered
by vessels not flying the Indonesian flag and are thus not covered by the
prohibition,” he said.
Alsons owns the 2x105 MW coal-fired
power plant under Sarangani Energy Corp.
For Aboitiz Power Corp., its
president and COO Antonio Moraza said there are also no issues in coal supply.
“Coal is coming through normally at the moment,” he said.
AboitizPower owns the Therma Luzon
Inc. power plant in Pagbilao, Quezon; the 300-MW Therma South Inc.plant in
Davao and Davao del Sur; the STEAG State Power Inc. plant inMisamis Oriental,
where it has a 34 percent interest; and the Cebu Energy Development Corp. plant
in Toledo, Cebu, where it owns a 26.4 percent effective interest.
On the other hand, AC Energy
Holdings Inc.’s “supply use vessels not covered by the ban, so we are ok,”
company president and CEO John Eric Francia said. AC Energy’s coal-fired power
facilities include the 2x135 MW South Luzon Thermal Corp. (SLTEC) plant, a
joint venture with Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp., and the 600-MW
GN Power Mariveles plant, where it owns a 17 percent stake.
A check with gencos also showed
there is no disruption in coal supply as they have enough coal reserves, Cusi
said.
“We have something like 30 days,
which is the required amount. When I asked, [they said] we have more than that.
We are okay as far as coal (supply) is concerned,” he said.
In the critical Mindanao grid, the
SEC plant has more than enough coal inventory, Alson’s project implementation
vice president and head of coal operations Nicandro Fucoy said in a phone
interview.
“We have also sufficient inventory
of around 50 days. It’s more than what is required. We just had a recent
shipment. But our average (inventory) is 40 days,” he said.
In any case, some local coal
producers have already expressed willingness to shoulder a portion of the local
demand.
Last week, at the height of the
issue, Consunji assured Semirara is ready to shift 700,000 tons of monthly coal
exports to meet the local requirement.
In a text message yesterday,
Consunji reiterated the company’s stance to meet local coal demand “anytime.”
Meanwhile, Coal Asia Holdings Inc.
said it stands ready to partially meet the requirements of its clients in light
of the ban through wholly-owned unit Titan Mining and Energy Corp.
“Due to Indonesia’s recently
repeated ban of its flagged coal vessels to sail to the Philippines, Coal Asia
and its subsidiary Titan Mining are prepared to assist their clients to cushion
the impact of the shortfall in coal import by making available its equivalent
local resources,” the firm said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock
Exchange yesterday.
In fact, it announced it just
completed 1,000 metric tons coal shipment to the SEC plant, which Fucoy said is
only a “minuscule volume.”
However, Nocos said the purchase of
coal from Coal Asia is not related to the Indonesian ban.
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