A Brown unit to start Iloilo power plant

Business Mirror

Published on Monday, 03 June 2013 18:33

Written by Paul Anthony A. Isla / Reporter

LISTED A Brown Co. Inc. (ABCI) said on Monday it is already preparing to start the construction of a 135-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Concepcion, Iloilo.

Roel Z. Castro, Palm Concepcion Power Corp. (PCPC) president, said the company will be issuing a notice to proceed to the general engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor on June 7. “We are very pleased to inform power users in Negros we are all out to support this project, especially now that the construction will be starting in the coming weeks,” he added.

Walter W. Brown, PCPC chairman, said they would like to assure customers that they will deliver the project as committed because of the limited power situation.

Brown said the power plant is targeted to support the economic activities in Panay, Negros and the entire Visayas.

The Concepcion project will be composed of two units of 135-MW power-generation plants starting with one unit of a 135-MW facility utilizing coal as primary fuel and using Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion technology.

ABCI said the first phase of the project is targeted to be completed in early 2016, in time for the additional power supply requirements of the Visayas region.

ABCI said PCPC recently held a road show for the electric cooperatives in Negros with Jin Navitas Resource Inc. at Planta Centro Hotel in Bacolod City.  Representatives of Alstom Power, the supplier of the steam turbine and generator for the project, were also present.

Officials of NLSC, the consortium of First Northeast Electric Power Engineering Corp. of China, Liaoning Electric Power Survey and Design Institute and Shenyang Electric Power Design Institute Co. Ltd., which was commissioned as EPC contractor, were introduced where they indicated that they are ready to mobilize in the area.

In October last year PCPC signed a connection agreement with the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP). The deal paves the way, and ensures the dispatch of PCPC’s generation output to its customers via the facilities of NGCP.

“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,” Castro 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 that 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 to 2008 revealed a much higher demand growth rate of 6.3 percent.   source