US energy giant allots $2 B for Zambales plant

MANILA, Philippines - US-based energy giant AES Corp. is pouring in $2 billion for the expansion of its coal-fired power plant in Zambales and for the development of an energy storage project in the Philippines, its top official said yesterday.

In a roundtable discussion with US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, who is in Manila for a visit, AES president and chief executive officer Andres Gluski said as a reflection of US business interest in the Philippines, AES is expanding its 600-megawatt Masinloc plant and investing in an energy storage project.

“We’re very impressed with renewed economic growth. We’d like to support the development of the Philippines. We have about $2 billion in projects. Some of them our expansion and some of them are new technologies such as for storage of energy,” Gluski told reporters during the roundtable meeting hosted by the US Embassy in Manila.

Of the $2 billion, AES will invest $1.2 billion for the expansion of the Masinloc plant by another 600 MW.

“We have projects of up to $2 billion more in the pipeline. One is a plant expansion of Masinloc. Then we have the energy storage project,” Gluski said.

The energy storage, he explained, could help support renewable energy projects in the Philippines as this would serve as “batteries” that can work on islands around the country.

“These can help provide ancillary services. Those are interesting. They’re very well adapted to the Philippines. They work very well on islands where the batteries can work. We’re the world leader in the use of these batteries,” he said.

For the Masinloc project, he said, the expansion is already in the advanced stages.

“We have the environmental permits and we’re now on the final commercial aspects,” Gluski said.

The target commissioning of the plant is in the third quarter of 2017, according to documents from the Department of Energy (DOE).

For the energy storage project, Gluski said the company may invest $300 million or $500 million, depending on the capacity.

According to documents from the DOE, AES Philippines Power Partners is planning to embark on a 40-MW battery storage project in Negros.

The project is among the list of indicative power projects for the Visayas grid, which is expected to come online by March 2015.

On top of the two projects, he said there’s room to further build its portfolio in the Philippines.

“There’s room to grow in the Philippines. We’ll look at the other opportunities. We are open but we have to make sure we have a critical mass,” Gluski said.