By
Lenie Lectura - May 1, 2017
THE Manila Electric Co.
(Meralco) expects the release of the regulatory approval of its power-supply
agreement (PSAs) for Redondo Peninsula Energy Inc. (RP Energy) within the
month.
“The PSA is expected to
be secured from the Energy Regulatory Commission by May,” said Angelito
Lantin, senior vice president of Meralco PowerGen, the power- generation arm of
Meralco.
RP Energy is a joint
venture among MGen (47 percent), Therma Power Inc. (25 percent) and Taiwan
Cogeneration International Corp. (25 percent). The power project is
a 2×300-megawatt (MW) circulating-fluidized bed coal-fired power plant in Subic
Bay, Zambales.
The PSA for the first
300-MW phase of the power project was already signed with Meralco (225 MW) and
Aboitiz Energy Solutions Inc. (75 MW) in April 2016.
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Upon approval of the
PSA, RP Energy will issue the notice to proceed to the engineering,
procurement, construction (EPC) contractor and drawdown on the
project-financing loan.
A construction contract
was signed with Azul Torre Construction Inc., while the supply contract was
with Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction Co. Ltd.
RP Energy has signed
the P31-billion, long-term project-financing loan agreement with three local
banks.
Lantin said site
preparation is essentially complete, as the power plant site is ready for major
construction activities for the first phase, targeted to be completed in the
third quarter of 2020.
The second phase shall
follow within 12 months, subject to the progress of the National Grid
Corp. of the Philippines’s rights-of-way acquisition for the new
transmission line that will be built to connect the second phase to the grid.
The PSA for RP Energy
is one of the seven it filed with the Energy Regulatory Commission.
Meralco President Oscar
Reyes also expects regulatory approval of its PSA for Atimonan One Energy
Inc. (A1E), which is involved in a 2×600-MW power plant in Atimonan,
Quezon province.
A1E signed in April
last year a 20-year PSA with Meralco for the full output of the plant.
“We are eagerly
awaiting the release of the approvals of our PSAs for the 2×600-MW A1E and the
first 300-MW phase of RP Energy power plants, as we see the critical need
for these power plants to come online to meet the growing power requirements
within the next three to four years,” Reyes said.
He said the first three
months of the year saw generation charges spike due to the combined effects of
thinning supply from scheduled shutdowns and forced outages, and recently from
the unexpected effect of earthquakes on the Batangas power plants last month.
“In the meantime, we
have proceeded with all the necessary preconstruction work so that we can
mobilize the EPC contractors soon after approvals are obtained,” Reyes said.
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