Meralco PowerGen Corp., a unit of Manila Electric Co., has no plans to move the proposed 600-megawatt coal-fired power plant out of the Subic Bay Freeport, a company official said over the weekend.
“We have no plans to move, RPE is committed to SBMA,” Meralco PowerGen executive vice president and general manager Aaron Domingo said, when asked to comment about the reported letter of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority asking the company to relocate the power project elsewhere.
Meralco PowerGen is the controlling shareholder of Redondo Peninsula Energy Inc., the proponent of the coal project.
Meralco PowerGen holds 50 percent plus two shares in RP Energy while Aboitiz-controlled Therma Power Inc. and Taiwan Cogeneration International Corp. own the remaining shares in equal proportion.
“RPE has an existing valid lease development agreement with SBMA. RPE has relied on this LDA and spent significant amount of money in developing that site based on this LDA,” Domingo said.
The Subic project aims to use two single high-efficiency 300-MW units for a total net generating capacity of 600 MW. The entire project is estimated to cost $1.28 billion.
“RPE is confident that SBMA will honor its commitments in the LDA and allow us to continue finishing our power plant,” he said.
The Subic coal plant has met strong opposition due to environmental concerns.
Meralco PowerGen has applied with the Board of Investments to avail of incentives for the project.
Meralco president and chief executive Oscar Reyes earlier said the Subic project was still waiting for approval from the investments body. BoI-registered projects are exempted from income tax and enjoy duty-free importation of equipment.
Reyes said Meralco PowerGen was also in discussions with transmission network operator National Grid Corp. to connect the power plant to the Luzon grid. He said Meralco PowerGen was committed to bring the plant to commercial operations by 2015.
Reyes said the company is also sticking to the traditional sources of fuel such as coal, natural gas, liquefied natural gas, hydro and wind for its power projects but rejected nuclear “because it is something the whole world is still reviewing.”
Aaron Domingo and his side kick John Quirke are incompetent and compulsive liars about everything. If Meralco can just find one more idiot, there would easily be a rejuvenation of the Three Stooges.
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