DMCI vows to make Calaca a world-class power plant

MANILA, Philippines - DMCI Holdings Inc. (DMCIHI) has committed to make its newly-acquired 600-megawattt (MW) Calaca power plant a world-class facility.

During the turnover ceremony yesterday, DMCIHI president Isidro Consunji said “Calaca will be the only coal-fired power plant in Luzon owned and operated by Filipinos.”

“We believe that Calaca employees, who are all Filipino, are very well equipped and very much capable to make Calaca a world-class coal-fired power plant,” he added.

The privatization of Calaca was formally closed Thursday upon its turnover by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) Corp.

PSALM received $150.79 million from new owner DMCIHI as downpayment for the power facility located in Calaca, Batangas. DMCIHI offered $361.7 million for the Southern Luzon-based power plant.

The power plant will be operated by Sem-Calaca Power Corp., a new company established by Semirara Mining Corp., the coal mining arm of DMCIHI.

PSALM president and chief executive officer Jose C. Ibazeta noted that the successful negotiated sale of the power facility last July 8 was a “turning point of the privatization program.”

“By the closing of Calaca, we effectively breached the 70 percent requirement under the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) for the generation side,” Ibazeta said. “So we now have to work on the IPP (independent power producer) side. We can achieve open access one year after we do that.”

The sale of the Calaca plant also substantially contributed to sustaining PSALM’s privatization program this year, which is currently at the 81.3 percent mark for all its generating assets in the Luzon and Visayas grids.

Ibazeta said DMCIHI’s entry in the electricity sector “certainly bolsters the confidence of the private sector in the future of the power industry.”

National Power Corp. (Napocor) president Froilan A. Tampinco acknowledged the “openness and the receptiveness” of Sem-Calaca in recognizing the issues and concerns of the employees of Napocor who, he said, “are now their employees starting today.”

Tampinco said Napocor would continue to support the government’s power privatization program.

DMCIHI owns 56 percent of Semirara, which has exclusive rights to explore, mine and develop the coal resources on Semirara Island in Caluya, Antique. Semirara currently supplies coal to the Calaca facility.