Global Business Power Corp. (GBP) recently completed preventive maintenance of its Panay and Cebu plants in anticipation of increased economic activity leading to the Christmas holiday in Visayas.
Jaime Azurin, GBP president said in a statement, since January, GBP has been routinely conducting preventive maintenance on all of its circulating fluidized bed (CFB) coal plants with the last plant completing the procedure in August.
Citing data from the company’s energy economics and planning, Azurin said power demand in the Visayas in the last quarter of the year is expected to grow by 5.70 percent due to increased economic activity around the holiday season with a projected peak demand to average around 2,147 megawatts (MW) for the last three months of the year.
The Department of Energy expects demand to peak even higher in the region at 2,299 MW in November.
“We see an increase in Visayas energy demand not only due to holiday activities, but also due to completed and ongoing infrastructure projects under the government’s Build, Build, Build program,” said Philip Dasalla, GBP vice president for commercial and strategy.
Projects including the recently operational Terminal 2 of the Mactan Cebu International airport, the ongoing development of the 73 kilometer Metro Cebu Expressway and the Cebu Cordova Link Expressway, the Jalaur River dam in Iloilo and several airport upgrades in the region are the main drivers of power demand growth.
At present, GBP has 11 power generation facilities with a total installed capacity comprised of 157 MW from diesel-fired technology and 697 MW from coal with facilities located in Cebu, Iloilo, Aklan and Mindoro.
It is also currently developing a 2X335 MW coal-fired power plant in La Union.
GBP is jointly owned by Beacon Electric Asset Holdings Inc. and Meralco PowerGen of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and JG Summit Holdings, Inc.
