New 2,000-MW capacity coming after 2013

Manila Bulletin

By MYRNA M. VELASCO

November 19, 2010, 8:55pm

 MANILA, Philippines – The estimated 2,000 megawatts of additional capacity committed by both local and foreign investors will plug the country’s power shortfall from 2013 onwards, but Energy Secretary Rene D. Almendras admitted that the next two years would still be critical.

At the Infrastructure Philippines 2010 Conference promoting public-private sector partnership, the energy chief highlighted the “commitments from the private sector of over 2,000 MW of additional generating capacity for Luzon in the next 3 to 5 years.”

But separately, in a press conference, he acknowledged that he is still problematic with the power supply situation by next year until 2012.

The gestation period for power plant projects would normally take 24 months to build, and if financial closing and permitting processes would be included, the completion period may take 3 to 5 years depending on the technologies to be deployed.

“We are assured of power supply by 2013 and even for 2015 to 2016, but we are working on quick solutions in the next two years,” he said.

Between 2013 to 2014, the 600-megawatt capacity of GN Power will start shoring up supply in the Luzon grid; while the other power commitments may come on stream between 2014 to 2016.

Almendras sounded optimistic though that he can still do something about the situation, with him recently calling on the commitments for the capacity uprating of power generation companies on their existing power facilities.

The two years in which the country’s commercial and industrial hub of Luzon may intermittently suffer from power interruptions could still serve as deal-breakers for most investments though, especially for the power-intensive industries.

It must be culled that the 1990s power crisis triggered by the energy plan-devoid Aquino administration plunged the country into massive power interruptions for more than two years; and that practically razed investments to the ground.

The succeeding administration also had to bite the bullet when it had to give the power crisis an immediate solution, hence, it lost all traction to negotiate for power contracts on better terms as compared to what the other countries, the likes of Thailand and Malaysia, had done.