LUZON’S power situation is turning out to be more manageable than expected, with peak demand as yet failing to exceed the worst-case scenario of 9,000 megawatts (MW) projected last year, a Department of Energy (DoE) official said.
May 182015
Nov 132014
THE power subsidiary of listed conglomerate Ayala Corp. (AC) expects to bring in an additional 370 megawatts (MW) to the Luzon grid by the end of next year.
Sep 252014
THE SENATE is likely to turn down the request of President Benigno S. C. Aquino III to buy additional megawatts (MW) to plug the looming power shortage in Luzon for 2015.
Apr 062014
MANILA, Philippines – The company of supermarket chain owner Lucio Co expects to start commissioning this June its 9.9-megawatt biomass plant in Nueva Ecija, with commercial operations targeted to commence in October. Co, the Filipino-Chinese businessman behind the Puregold supermarket chains, earlier bought a majority stake in San Jose City I Power Corp. (SJC I Power), a renewable energy that will build the biomass plant. According to SJC I Power chief operating officer Edgardo Alfonso, commercial operation will be on Oct. 1. “The project is 95 percent completed,” Alfonso said. The project is estimated to cost P1 billion. Ruby de Guzman, OIC-division chief of the Department of Energy’s Biomass Energy Management Division Renewable Energy Management Bureau, said that Co’s group is also venturing into a second phase of the project, which involves adding 24 MW. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “By June, they will start construction of second phase, which they amended to 24 MW,” De Guzman said. “The expansion will start as soon as the first phase becomes operational,” Alfonso confirmed. Alfonso said the project would avail of incentives under the government’s Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) system. The FIT regime is a form of incentives for renewable energy players. Feed-in tariffs offer cost-based compensation to renewable energy players among other perks. The FIT rate approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the power regulator are as follows: P9.68 per kilowatt-hour for solar; P8.53 per kwh for wind, P6.63 per kwh for biomass and P5.90 per kwh for Read More …
Jan 192014
MANILA, Philippines – Energy Development Corp., the Lopez-owned geothermal company, is eyeing to restore all the units of its 650-megawatt Unified Leyte Power Plant by August. The power facility in Leyte, the single biggest source of electricity in the Visayas, shut down after Super Typhoon Yolanda damaged some units when it struck in some parts of the Visayas in November last year. “We should have all the units back in operation around August and possibly earlier depending on the availability of spare parts which is dependent on manufacturing lead time,” said EDC president Richard Tantoco. EDC has been able to repair the damaged facility in phases, successfully dispatching 292 MW to the Visayas Grid to date. “For Unified Leyte, we are now producing a total of 292 MW,” Tantoco said. Tantoco said the facility would definitely be back online at full capacity this year. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Last week, EDC said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) that the company has been able to run another unit of the Malitbog facility, allowing the plant to produce additional capacity of 75 MW. “EDC has successfully energized another unit of the Malitbog Power Plant, with an additional capacity of 75MW. Said unit is now on start-up mode and under reliability and other tests,” the EDC said in its disclosure. In early January, EDC restored the first unit with a capacity of 75 MW in coordination with the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, Read More …
Jul 072013
MANILA, Philippines – Listed holding firm Jolliville Holdings Inc. plans to pursue two new hydropower projects with a generation capacity of 20 megawatts (MW) worth as much as $75 million. The company aims to initially ride on the increasing energy demand in Mindoro province before expanding in new areas, its top official said. “After the first 10-MW mini-hydro power plant, we might expand our hydropower plant by another 10-20 MW using the same source,” Jolliville chairman and CEO Jolly L. Ting said in an interview. Based on a benchmark investment of $3-3.5 million per MW for hydropower projects, Jolliville will need $60-75 million for the two renewable energy projects. Last week, Jolliville subsidiary Ormin Power Inc. borrowed P1.1-billion from state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines to fund the construction of the 10-MW Inabasan River hydropower project. Ting said the loan covers 70 percent of the total project cost, with the remaining 30 percent to be sourced from internally-generated cash. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 The first phase of the run-of-river hydropower venture will start commercial operations in 2015. “We will have to finish the first 10 MW and then we can be ready for another 10 MW,” Ting said, adding that Inabasan River can produce as much as 30 MW of power. Electricity generated by the power plant will be sold to the Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative (Ormeco), the sole power distributor in the province. Ormeco distributes power to the entire province of Oriental Mindoro which Read More …
Jun 262013
MORE than 200 contestable customers or those electricity end-users with an average monthly consumption of at least one megawatt (MW) are now being served by their chosen suppliers as the commercial implementation of retail competition and open access (RCOA) began yesterday.
May 302013
MANILA, Philippines – The country’s oldest conglomerate Ayala Corp. (AC) took advantage of liquidity in the equity market to raise P3.3 billion in fresh capital for its power and infrastructure projects. In a regulatory filing, AC said it completed the sale of 5.18 million common shares held in its treasury. “This raised cash proceeds of approximately P3.3 billion, which AC intends to use to fund existing and potential sizable projects in the infrastructure and power sectors,” AC said. “This new funding will further strengthen our balance sheet to build up our portfolio in these two sectors,” said AC president and chief operating officer Fernando Zobel de Ayala. At P647 per share, AC’s shares were sold at a three percent discount compared with the previous closing price of P667. The conglomerate earlier announced that is looking to invest up to $1 billion over the next five years for the capital intensive but high-yielding power and infrastructure sectors. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “We hope to be able to contribute in some measure to the development of these sectors and at the same time create future sources of earnings and value for the group,” Zobel said. In the last two years, AC has committed more than $300 million of equity on power projects with roughly 900 megawatts (MW) of gross generating capacity. “It is looking to increase its equity commitment to $500 million to $600 million in the next 12 to 18 months,” AC said. Given its bullishness Read More …
Feb 272013
MANILA, Philippines – The power crisis that hobbled Mindanao last year may recur if the region’s baseload capacity is not increased soon, a government think tank said. Based on a study conducted by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), the Mindanao power crisis may stage a comeback in this year’s and next year’s summer season given that there had been no additions to the baseload capacity. Baseload capacity refers to the generation units normally used to meet power demand round-the-clock. PIDS senior research fellow Adoracion Navarro said in the summer of 2012, Mindanao experienced a crippling power crisis, which revealed the shoddy and fragmented state of energy infrastructure in the region as well as in the whole country. Entering another summer period, attention is again rising because of the precariously low power supply, which is feared to put a brake on economic development. “Businesses, for instance, have voiced concerns that the country’s energy situation may slow down and even stunt the country’s economic growth,” Navarro said. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Consolidated forecasts for electricity demand for the period 2010-2019 show an annual average demand growth of 4.28 percent in Mindanao, which is higher than the national rate of 3.63 percent for the same period. The Mindanao grid at present has 37.31-percent baseload generating capacity, a far cry from Luzon’s 63.94 percent and Visayas’ 71.88 percent, based on 2012 data from the Department of Energy (DOE). Mindanao’s generating capacity is also heavily dependent on hydropower, Read More …
Jan 282013
MANILA, Philippines – Conglomerate Ayala Corp., through its power subsidiary AC Energy Corp., and the Phinma Group’s Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. will start operating their P12-billion power plant joint venture in Calaca, Batangas in the third quarter of 2014, a top official said yesterday. In an interview, Trans-Asia president Francisco Viray said the two companies are on track with their Calaca project, with construction ongoing. “We are on track. It will be for commission in the third quarter of 2014,” Viray said. The two companies signed the joint venture agreement in 2011 to develop and operate the 135-megawatt coal power plant in Calaca. Ayala Corp. and Trans-Asia agreed to incorporate a joint venture company, South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp., equally owned by them and which had an initial capitalization of P200 million. The 135-MW thermal power plant in Batangas had an estimated cost of P12 billion to be financed by debt and equity. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Viray said the project has been fully funded already and is just awaiting completion. “The project has been fully funded. It’s really just the construction that we are waiting for,” Viray said. He is also optimistic on business prospects of the plant because open access regime, which would soon be in place. “We’re optimistic that there will be enough market because of the open access will be ready in June so there will be a market,” Viray said. Under the open access scheme, large power users Read More …