Alcantara coal plant breaks ground

Manila Standard Today


MAASIM, Sarangani—The Alcantara Group’s Sarangani Energy Corp. on Friday broke ground on its 200-megawatt coal-fired plant project, which is estimated to cost $400 million to build and reduce electricity rates by as much as P1 per kilowatt-hour over the long term, officials said here.


“The construction of our coal plant here will improve reserves and increase availability of supply in southern Mindanao,” Joseph Nocos, vice president for business development of Sarangani Energy, said during a briefing.


“The plant will bring down [blended] rates by P0.30 to P0.50 per kWh by 2014, and around P1 per kWh in the next eight years,” Nocos said, refering to the cost of power supplied by South Cotabato II Electric Cooperative to consumers in southern Mindanao.


The coal plant is one of the several power plants slated to be built by the private sector in response to a looming power shortage in Mindanao by 2014. Generation facilities in the island have been unable to keep with Mindanao’s growing population and expanding economy.


Mindanao needs around 600 MW of additional power capacity to avert an impending power shortage. The Sarangani coal plant is expected to cover one-third of the island’s project power deficit in 2014.


Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras welcomed the project, saying it was “the beginning of a solution to the Mindanao situation.” Mindanao suffered power outages last year during the El Niño weather phenomenon, which cut production from the hydropower plants. Mindanao depends on the bulk of its power requirements from hydro plants.


“I hope there will be more non-hydro baseload generation projects that will follow. Ideally we should have 500 MW of non-hydro baseload generation in Mindanao,” Almendras said when asked for comment.


Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo, who graced the groundbreaking ceremonies, said the project would spur investments in Mindanao.


“This will be a very big help to businesses, if there is a shortage of power, it caps the economic growth of the area. This project takes out one of the critical constraints for growth of an area,” Domingo said. “As we add more [power} capacities, that will bring pressure on the rates to go down.” Alena Mae S. Flores