By | Jan. 15, 2014 at 12:01am
BATANGAS CITY—First Gen Corp. on Tuesday rolled out a $2.5-billion investment to build an additional 1,342 megawatts of natural gas capacity and a liquefied natural gas terminal in this city over a six-year period.
(right) leads the groundbreaking for
the 414-megawatt San Gabriel
natural gas-fired power plant of
First NatGas Power Corp., a wholly-
owned subsidiary of Lopez-controlled
First Gen Corp., in Batangas City.
With them are (from left) Lopez
Group chairman emeritus Oscar
Lopez, First Gen president and chief
operating officer Francis Giles Puno
and First Gen chairman and chief
executive Federico Lopez.
First Gen started the first phase of the projects Tuesday, with the groundbreaking of the 414-megawatt San Gabriel combined cycle natural gas-fired power plant in Sta. Rita village that would be undertaken by wholly-owned subsidiary First NatGas Power Corp.
The plant, located at the existing 1,500-MW Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo natural gas facilities, is expected to go on commercial operation by 2016. The plant will sell electricity to the Luzon grid.
First Gen said it would spend $600 million for the first 414-MW plant and an additional $400 million each, or a total of $800 million for two more units.
Once completed, the three new power plants would bring First Gen’s natural gas capacity to over 3,000 MW.
The company said it would also spend $1 billion for the construction of an LNG terminal and regasification facility.
“These 414 megawatts of San Gabriel is really just the first of three such additional plants planned for this site. Our vision is to build an additional 1,342 megawatts between now and 2019 right here around where we laid the first spade today,” First Gen chairman Federico Lopez said during the groundbreaking ceremony.
“That will bring our total capacity of LNG-fired plants to more than 3,000 megawatts by then,” Lopez said.
He said adding more capacity to the power grid “will lessen dependence on these expensive oil-fired peaking power plants and have the effect of taming any opportunistic behavior that can ensure from tight supply conditions.”
President Benigno Aquino, who attended as guest of honor accompanied by Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla and other government officials, welcomed the project, saying it reflected the private sector’s investment confidence in his administration.
Lopez said the company would also speed up the construction of a 100-MW Avion modular natural gas plant, which would be the first power plant in the country using aeroderivative turbines.
He said the company was still securing the permits and approvals for the Avion project and expected to complete it by the end of 2014. source
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