A Brown commits to build coal-fired plant

Manila Times.net
Published : Tuesday, February 14, 2012 00:00 Written by : Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo


A BROWN Co., Inc. (ABCI) has committed to push through with a proposed coal-fired power plant in Concepcion, Iloilo.
In a letter to the Department of Energy (DOE), ABCI said that the company tapped BDO Capital & Investment Corp. to arrange the project debt financing requirements of the 200-megawatt Concepcion coal plant. In light of this, the DOE reclassified the project from “indicative” to “committed”, which allows the proposed plant to be listed among the power projects that will be out up in 2012.


”In view of the capacity gap in the Visayas by 2015, we are looking at this project to provide the required capacities by 2015, given the target commissioning of your project are by 3rd quarter of 2015 (phase I) and November 2016 (phase II),” Mylene Capongcol, DOE director, said in the letter.


ABCI is the investment arm of businessman Walter Brown. The company is primarily engaged in the business of real estate development but has interests in power, property development and investments in other companies.


The company, through majority-owned Palm Concepcion Power Corp., acquired the project from the Consunji’s DMCI Power Corp., which opted to let go of the proposed plant after it failed to secure power supply agreements with the region’s electric cooperatives.


Despite this, DMCI’s affiliate, Semirara Mining Corp., will supply the plant’s coal requirements once it is put up. The proposed coal plant was initially estimated to cost P7 billion for its first phase alone.


ABCI projects to close the financing of the project with BDO by the second quarter of the year.