DMCI Power eyes Panay co-ops' requirements

DMCI Power Corp., a joint venture between the Consunji family and the Metrobank Group’s Global Business Power Corp., is planning to bid for the 90-megawatt power requirement of Panay electric cooperatives.

“We submitted a joint bid with Global Power and is now being evaluated by the Panay Power Supply Consortium,” DMCI president Nestor Dadivas said. 

The PPSC, a group of Panay electric cooperatives comprised of Iloilo Electric Cooperative I, II and III, Aklan Electric Cooperative, Capiz Electric Cooperative, Antique Electric Cooperative and Guimaras Electric Cooperative, has consolidated their power requirement for the next three years and decided to bid it out to power generators.

According to Dadivas, DMCI will be able to supply the need of the consortium by putting up a 100-megewatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Concepcion, Iloilo estimated to cost more than P7 billion.

He said Global Power will also put up a 246-MW coal-fired power plant in Cebu.

“We are in advanced stage of negotiations with banks for funding. We will definitely build the power plant in Concepcion,” he said. The plant is expected to go online by July 2010.

The Concepcion-based coal facility will use “clean coal technology” and will utilize coal from Semirara Mining Corp., another DMCI company based in Antique.

DMCI Power has tapped Argosy Partners Inc. for investments in energy-related projects in the Philippines including the Panay coal plant.

The company is also planning to put up a 15-MW coal-fired power plant. DMCI Power won the bid for the Masbate Small Power Utilities Group of the National Power Corp.