JG Summit eyes coal, biomass projs

MANILA, Philippines - JG Summit Holdings Inc., the investment vehicle of the Gokongwei Group, is eyeing to put up a 300-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Batangas City, according to documents from the Department of Energy.

Its subsidiary Universal Robina Corp. is also planning a 46-MW biomass power plant in Negros Occidental, the same DOE documents showed.

The two projects will further increase the energy portfolio of the Gokongwei Group, which recently acquired a 27-percent stake in Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power distributor.

According to the documents, JG Summit and Universal Robina have been given the go-signal by the energy department to conduct their respective grid impact studies for the power plants.

A grid impact study would show a power plant’s effect on a certain grid. Thus, the studies will show the impact of the projects on the Luzon and Visayas grids.

In October, Meralco chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said Meralco and JG Summit are in exploratory talks for expanding JG Summit’s petrochemical business or teaming up to build a new power plant in Luzon.

“We spoke about expanding the petrochem part and thinking of building a power plant. We could revive that...we could co-invest with them on a power plant, to supply to the grid. That’s in Luzon,” Pangilinan earlier  said.

JG Summit is into petrochemical and now has two wholly-owned subsidiaries in its 250-hectare fully integrated petrochemical manufacturing complex in Batangas – JG Summit Petrochemical Corp. and JG Summit Olefins Corp.