SINGAPORE – The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) through its power generation arm, Meralco Power Gen Corp. (MGen), will beef up its baseload portfolio by pursuing coal-fired power plant units that are exempted from the moratorium imposed by the government.
Emmanuel Rubio, MGen president and chief executive officer, told reporters in a briefing here the company is preparing to build coal-fired power plants in Atimonan, Quezon and in Toledo, Cebu.
Rubio said MGen is waiting for the Department of Energy to issue a document certifying the exemption of these projects from the coal-fired power plant construction moratorium.
“In parallel, we are talking to potential EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractors and equipment suppliers. We have two candidates in Atimonan and so far, we have one sure candidate for Toledo which was the original supplier, Formosa Heavy Industries,” Rubio said.
“We have budgetary numbers, we’re running the numbers to see if it could be viable and competitive then if you can do that, probably go for a board approval by February and then we look for a CSP (competitive selection process) where we can participate,” Rubio added.
However, Rubio clarified the expected board approval by February does not mean a final investment decision on the projects
Rubio said there are four local banks and two Indonesian banks interested to fund the coal-fired power projects.
MGen said to produce a megawatt (MW) of capacity from coal-fired technologies requires an investment of $1.6 million.
The capacities of the power plants eyed by MGen in Atimonan and Toledo have yet to be finalized.
Rubio said MGen’s existing 82 MW coal-fired power plant under Toledo Power Co. has original construction permits allowing for two units of 80 MW each.
The Atimonan site was originally planned to host a 1,200 MW coal-fired power plant. The company was earlier considering putting up a 4×600 MW natural gas-fired combined cycle gas turbine power plant project in the area.
