Filinvest power plant adds 405 MW to Mindanao grid

MANILA, Philippines - To boost power supply in the Mindanao grid, Gotianun-led FDC Utilities Inc. will start providing the full capacity of its 3x135-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Misamis Oriental within this month.

FDC Utilities said its subsidiary FDC Misamis Power Corp. has completed all the three units of its Mindanao power project.

Of the three units, two have already went online while the third unit is scheduled for synchronization within September, the company said.

“To date, FDC Misamis has a generating capacity of 270 MW and is currently supplying over 200 MW into the Mindanao grid. So far, the commissioning test has been running smoothly and we expect to attain the full capacity of 405 MW by this month,” FDC Utilities president and COO Mario Pangilinan said.

He said the project will help Mindanao finally get out of decades-long power crisis, “given its high dependence on hydro power compounded by the increasing frequency of the El Niño phenomenon.”

“Our project will finally put an end to this recurring power crisis that has plagued the region and hopefully drive the much needed economic development in Mindanao,” Pangilinan said.

Long term contractual commitments have been secured for more than 85 percent of the project’s net capacity with various distribution utilities and large industrial customers in Mindanao.

With the project running, the Mindanao grid will be more reliable and the quality of service will be higher, said Ambrocio Rosales, OIC head of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) Mindanao System Operations Department.

“The operation of the FDC Misamis power project will greatly boost the supply security in the Mindanao region. And this is not only because of its large capacity but also due to its strategic connection to the grid,” he said.

Once all units of the Misamis coal plant start commissioning, FDC Misamis will be injecting a total of about 500 MW to the Mindanao grid, including its 100-MW Apo Geothermal IPPA contract.

The power plant is the Filinvest Group’s biggest investment in Mindanao, Filinvest Development Corp. chairman Jonathan Gotianun said. Filinvest also has significant investments in real estate, banking and sugar in Mindanao.

Located in the Phividec Industrial Estate in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental, the 450-MW power plant is a multi-billion peso investment that uses the circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler technology, the latest in clean coal technology. Considered as the cleanest process to burning coal, the technology is also known for having higher steam generator efficiency, thus lowering carbon emissions.