By
Lenie Lectura - March 2, 2020
SAN
Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co. (SBPL), a joint venture between the affiliates of
Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen) and Thailand’s EGCO Group, is expected to
contribute over a billion pesos to Meralco this year.
The operation of SBPL’s
455-megawatt (MW) supercritical coal-fired plant in Mauban, Quezon has provided
P300 million of contribution to Meralco’s core net income at end-2019.
When asked if SBPL will
be able to post the same amount every quarter this year, MGen president Rogelio
Singson replied, “Possibly, that’s expected because it’s just one quarter…we
expect it.”
The plant began
commercial operations on September 26, 2019. It has since delivered 852M
gigawatt-hours (GWh) of energy to Meralco at an average plant availability of
over 87 percent as at December 31, 2019. This has eased supply within the
franchise area as around 630-megawatt (MW) of plant capacities went into
maintenance shutdown for almost 10 days in the last quarter of 2019.
“We’ve had some hiccups
early January but we were able to address immediately. We have
technicians, experts in boiler, boiler tuning that have been addressed. We hope
the solution is nothing major but boiler tuning.
“We have contributed to
the bottom line of Meralco of about P300 million, completed the project a
little below budget and on schedule. We are happy with the outcome of the
project and our partners are also happy with the project,” said Singson.
The distribution
utility firm’s president, Ray C. Espinosa, acknowledged the good performance of
the power plant. “We are extremely happy,” he commented.
The country’s most
advanced operational coal plant utilizes a high-efficiency, low-emissions
(HELE) coal technology.
Singson explained that
this technology could reduce carbon dioxide emissions and improve the
efficiency of the power plant by producing more amount of energy with less
coal.
“Significant advances
in coal-fired power plant technology demonstrate that we do not have to choose
between affordable and reliable electricity or a cleaner environment,” he said.
“As a pioneer of this technology, SBPL is setting the bar higher in operating
coal plants in the Philippines,” he added.
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