Business Mirror
WEDNESDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER 2011 20:04 PAUL ANTHONY A. ISLA / REPORTER
LISTED AboitizPower Corp. said it signed an agreement with Marubeni Corp. to jointly develop, build and operate a 400-megawatt (MW) coal-fired plant.
AboitizPower said the proposed plant will be constructed within the premises of the existing 700-MW Pagbilao power facility in Quezon, Philippines.
AboitizPower said the estimated cost of the facility is between $600 million and $700 million.
Marubeni is part owner of TeaM Energy which, in turn, owns and operates the Pagbilao plant under a build and operate contract with the National Power Corp.
Therma Luzon Inc. (TLI), a wholly owned subsidiary of AboitizPower, has been appointed as independent power producer administrator (IPPA) of the facility. As its IPPA, TLI handles the procurement of the plant’s fuel requirement and sale of its energy output.
Like the Pagbilao facilities, AboitizPower said the new power plant will also run on clean coal generation technology using the circulating fluidized bed that produces power with considerably less adverse effects to the environment.
The agreement was signed by Erramon Aboitiz, AboitizPower president and chief executive, and Shigeru Yamazoe, Marubeni executive managing director and board member.
“We are very pleased to work with Marubeni at optimizing the capacity of the Pagbilao power station. This is part of our overall goal of providing power solutions that are competitively priced,” said Aboitiz, adding that they expect to complete the power plant by 2015.
Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, who was part of President Aquino’s entourage during the recent state visit to Japan, said there are other Japanese companies that expressed interest to invest in the country.
He said there are Japanese companies that are looking into the country’s power-generation sector.
“There are really a lot, particularly production facilities and new locators. I think President Aquino had a very good open session yesterday with the Japanese Chamber of Commerce,” Almendras said.
The Energy chief revealed that instead of giving a long speech President Aquino decided to sit down and instead asked the Japanese companies’ representatives ask about investing to the Philippines.
“There is a proposal from a chip manufacturer. In fact, I’ve never seen a resistor so small that I can barely see it, and the producer of these resistors will be opening and operating a facility at the Laguna Technopark by next year,” he said, but did not reveal the identity of the chip maker.
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