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SUNDAY, 24 JUNE 2012 18:41 PAUL ANTHONY A. ISLA
TRANSFERRING Redondo Peninsula Energy Inc.’s (RP Energy) 600-megawatt (MW) power plant to the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) site could put Luzon grid’s power supply in a tight situation by 2015, Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras told reporters.
“If you move RP Energy’s plant elsewhere, the project will be delayed for another 18 to 24 months. In other words, it will not be available on-stream come 2015,” the energy chief said.
Almendras said RP Energy will not meet the deadline since they will have to dismantle some of the equipment in the BNPP.
He said a team of experts, who recently looked at the feasibility of converting the BNPP to a coal-fired power plant, said the plan was not feasible.
The group, he said, noted that some areas would have to be cleared and the BNPP would have to be retrofitted if it were to be used as a coal-fired power plant.
“Another issue was that the BNPP had no unloading facility, and that had no design for a port,” he said.
The group, according to Almendras, said the BNPP wasn’t the best site for a coal-fired power plant because it does not have the logistical capability to handle the fuel itself.
Almendras said coal-fired power plants require a huge area where it could unload huge quantities of coal supply.
“We really cannot afford not to have a new power plant by 2015. At the rate that consumption is growing and if the economy is expected to grow at the pace it is at, we will need at least another 600 MW by 2015, another 600 MW in 2016 and another 600 MW in 2017,” Almendras said.
(Paul Anthony Isla) source
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