Consunji firm to build 1,200-MW coal-fired plant in Calaca, Batangas

BUSINESS MIRROR

MONDAY, 11 JULY 2011 01:23 PAUL ANTHONY A. ISLA / REPORTER

A WHOLLY owned power arm of Semirara Mining Corp.— the mining subsidiary of Consunji-led DMCI Holdings Inc.—is looking at putting up an additional 1,200-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Calaca, Batangas, Nestor Dadivas, president SEM-Calaca Power Corp. told reporters.

“The area of Calaca is able to accommodate up to an additional 1,200-MW power plant. The way we see it is to do it in phases. We don’t want our project to be in big chunks as it will be difficult for us to market 600-MW worth of supply contracts while it’s easier to market a series of 150-MW or 300-MW supply contracts,” he added during the interview.

Under the first phase, Dadivas said they plan to initially put up the first two of four 150-MW power units in Calaca, Batanga,s that will use a China-based clean-coal technology to generate electricity.

In the next few weeks, Dadivas also hinted that they might decide whom to the award the engineering, procurement and construction contract.

He also made it clear that they have yet to decide which of their subsidiaries will undertake the project, saying that they still have to determine whether the project should be part of SEM-Calaca or another subsidiary.

“So it may be done by a wholly owned subsidiary which may or may not be SEM-Calaca or it could be done by a new corporation,” he said.

Dadivas also noted that they hope to begin construction before year-end and that it could take 32 to 36 months to complete the power plant.

He said they also plan to tap project financing for the project.

“We hope to have financial closure with the banks for the project within the next 60 to 75 days. Though it’s not really a problem as the market is open to the power projects,” he said.

Dadivas said the planned power facility will be able to use both low-grade and the regular grade Semirara coal.

SEM-Calaca acquired and took over the operations of the 600-MW Calaca coal-fired power plant in a public bidding of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) in July 2009.

SEM-Calaca offered $361.709 million to acquire the asset from PSALM as it has been allocated a substantial 287-MW power-supply contract or about 48 percent of the plant’s rated capacity.