Palm, NGCP sign connection agreement for Panay power project

Business Mirror

Published on Sunday, 07 October 2012 10:09

Written by Paul Anthony A. Isla / Reporter

LISTED A. Brown Co. Inc. (BRN) said on Friday that its subsidiary Palm Concepcion Power Corp. (PCPC) recently signed a connection agreement with the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, BRN said the agreement paves the way and ensures the dispatch of PCPC’s generation output to its customers via the facilities of system operator NGCP.

BRN said PCPC is the owner and operator of a proposed two 2x135 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Iloilo, while the NGCP is the sole operator of the country’s power-transmission facilities.

BRN said the agreement authorizes PCPC to connect to NGCP’s transmission system, allowing the delivery of the power plant’s output to its customers and off-takers.

“The delivery of PCPC’s generated electricity will be via a 40-kilometer double circuit 138-kilovolt [kV] overhead transmission line to NGCP’s Barotac Viejo sub-station. Our output will now be available to customers of the whole of the Visayas grid via the Negros-Panay and Cebu-Negros submarine cables,” Roel Castro, PCPC president, said.

Anthony Almeda, NGCP chief administrative officer, said the agreement confirms NGCP’s commitment to connect the Concepcion plant to the grid.

Castro and Almeda said the transmission and connection assets are important to the delivery of power from the generation plants to the Visayas grid.

Both added the construction of these facilities should be aligned with the construction schedule of the power plant so that the same will be ready to deliver the power plant’s output to the grid when it commences commercial operations on the latter part of 2015.

Government figures reveal that 2015 will be a critical period for the Visayas grid, where an additional capacity of 100 MW will be needed to avert shortages. This forecast was derived from a projection by the Department of Energy of an annual demand growth rate of 4.55 percent. However, recent figures from 2001-2008 revealed a much higher demand growth rate of 6.3 percent.

PCPC earlier entered into a partnership with Ayala Corp.’s AC Energy Holdings Inc. for a 135-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Panay.

BRN said its subsidiaries Palm Consolidated Holdings Corp., Palm Concepcion Power Corp. and Panay Consolidated Land Holdings Corp. signed the P12.5-billion agreement with Acehi.

BRN said the new plant, targeted to operate by 2015, is a 135-MW facility utilizing the latest in clean-coal technology. The plant is targeted to fill the anticipated tight power-supply situation in Panay and the Visayas grids by 2015, as economic activity continues to expand in the area.    source