Meralco to seal partnership for $2-B Atimonan project this year

by Madelaine B. Miraflor September 12, 2016

http://www.mb.com.ph/meralco-to-seal-partnership-for-2-b-atimonan-project-this-year/

Meralco PowerGen Corporation (MGen), the power generation unit of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), is hoping it could finally seal partnership for the development of 1,200-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Atimonan, Quezon.

Meralco President Oscar Reyes said the company is hoping to find a partner for its Atimonan project either before the end of the year or at the first quarter of next year.

“We are on the process of looking for partners. We haven’t formalized anything yet because we have to select a financial adviser first,” Reyes told Business Bulletin.

Reyes said Meralco is targeting to end its search for a financial adviser “within the next few months”.

As for the closing of a joint venture deal for the project, he only said “I don’t know if we can make it this year but it will most likely happen in the first quarter of next year.

To be undertaken by Atimonan One Energy, the proposed 2 x 600MW supercritical coal-fired power plant would likely cost US$2 billion.

But in his recent estimates, Reyes said the Atimonan project would cost “about US$3 billion.”

The unit one of the project is targeted for completion in late 2020, while the early works for the project such as the establishment of the access road to the site are targeted to start this year.

It was early last year when Meralco first announced that it is looking for prospective partners for the project.

Meralco Chairman Manuel Pangilinan said before that the project may actually require a partnership with a foreign company.

“Our partner [for the project] is likely Japanese or Korean and probably not Chinese,” Pangilinan said.

Aside from the Atimonan plant, MGen is also building a 500MW plant in Mauban and a 600MW coal-fired plant in Zambales.