Intergen eyes conversion of 3 power plants

Intergen, a global power generation firm owned by Shell Generating (Holding) B.V. and Bechtel Enterprises Energy B.V., is eyeing to convert at least three oil-fired power plants into gas-fired power facilities.

This was disclosed by Energy Secretary Vincent S. Perez who met with Intergen president and chief executive officer Carlos Riva.

According to Perez, Intergen has signified its interest to bid for the old power plants of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) such as the Sucat, Malaya and Limay plants for gas conversion.

Intergen is operating or building a total of 20 power stations representing 15,115 megawatts (MW). It also has projects in advanced stages of development representing an additional 2,535 MW, and is actively pursuing new projects in a dozen other countries.

In the Philippines, Intergen has investment in Quezon Power in Mauban, Quezon which sells power to the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

Quezon Power is the first build-own-operate (BOO) power project in the Philippines, and the first one in the country to be financed without a sovereign guarantee.

Aside from the Philippines, Intergen has projects in the United States, the United Kingdom, Colombia, Mexico, China, Egypt, Turkey, Brazil, Australia and the Netherlands.

Perez also said that they will try to keep the clustering of the generation companies (gencos) as flexible as possible to suit investors’ needs. "We are very flexible with the genco clustering. If there is a lot of interest for a specific plant, we will be more than happy to split it from a cluster," he said.

He said there appears to be a significant interest in the Sucat plant for gas conversion.

Aside from Intergen, there are at least two more firms that have expressed keen interest on Sucat. "As I’ve already mentioned Intergen has already expressed interest. British Gas also expressed interest in that conversion and there’s another party that approached us so at least there are three parties that expressed interest in Sucat," he said.