Wednesday, April 29, 2020

AboitizPower targets Bataan power plant’s commercial run in early 2021

April 28, 2020 | 12:03 am
https://www.bworldonline.com/aboitizpower-targets-bataan-power-plants-commercial-run-in-early-2021-2/

ABOITIZ POWER Corp. said it is eyeing to finish the preparation for a 668 megawatts (MW) power plant unit in Bataan this year before it can commercially run in the first quarter of 2021.

In the virtual annual stockholders’ meeting on Monday, AboitizPower Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel V. Rubio said the listed energy firm plans to complete the construction and synchronization of one unit of the supercritical 1,336 megawatts (MW) power plant by GN Power Dinginin Ltd. Co. (GNPD).

“Unit one will synchronize and earn commissioning revenues by the fourth quarter and will commence commercial operations by the first quarter of 2021,” Mr. Rubio said.

The power plant in Mariveles, Bataan is the company’s joint venture project with Ayala-led AC Energy Corp., formerly AC Energy Philippines, Inc.

As for the plant’s second unit, it will be synchronized and will earn commissioning revenues by the first quarter of next year, and start commercial operations by the second quarter.

Synchronization is the process of matching the speed and frequency of a power generation to a running network to deliver power in electricity grids.

First-line commissioning activities were initially expected to begin by the first quarter of the year.

The energy company is expecting a total attributable capacity of 4,432 MW by the end of the year. “Currently, 968 MW of this pertains to GNPD and its other construction,” Mr. Rubio added.

Meanwhile, the drop in electricity demand throughout the country upon the implementation of the ECQ due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the power firm’s revenue targets for 2020.

As businesses started to slowly return in operations after temporarily closing, the company saw a cause for optimism as there has been a slight increase in power demand.

“We’re seeing [an] uptick in demand, mainly brought about by some return to normalcy in some businesses that we are seeing, and increase in temperature,” Mr. Rubio noted.

Recently, the Department of Energy and the Energy Regulatory Commission posted their advisories, which task energy stakeholders to provide a grace period in the payments of electricity bills and allow these to be paid in four installments in the next four billing months starting mid-May.

“We initially adjust[ed] our collection targets downwards to reflect these advisories,” Mr. Rubio said. “But good news, we are seeing more collection than initially forecasted, and we hope that this continues,” he added.

On Monday, shares in AboitizPower increased by 2.45% to close at P27.20 apiece. — Adam J. Ang

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