Alcantara power plant to start by 2014

Manila, Philippines - Conal Holdings Corp. (CHC), the power generation arm of the Alcantara Group, expects the commercial operation of its 200-megawatt coal-fired power plant to start by mid-2014 in Saranggani, Mindanao, a company official said.

CHC financial analyst Antonio Miguel Alcantara said they have entered into an EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) contract with a Korean firm, Daelim, for the project.

“We have finished our discussions with Daelim for the EPC contract. Construction is targeted to start around August or September (2011),” he said.

He said they would tap several commercial banks to raise funds for the project.

“We plan to achieve financial closure by June or July. We are still trying to put up a consortium among local banks, but I believe the lead will be done via BDO. It’s all local and peso-financed,” he said.

Aside from the Saranggani power project, CHC is also planning to put up another facility in Zamboanga.

“We’re planning to put up a coal plant in Zamboanga. And it’s targeted to have that commissioned in the second half to the latter months of 2016, which is a year after the commissioning of the Saranggani plant and is timed with the expiration of the WMPC (Western Mindanao Power Corp.) contract with Napocor (National Power Corp.) in December 2016,” he said.

Alcantara, however, said they have yet to decide the capacity for the planned Zamboanga power plant.

“For the Zamboanga plant, we are still starting the initial study. So we haven’t determined yet who will develop the Zamboanga plant,” he said.

He said they may be tapping a partner for the Zamboanga project.

“The development of this project, we started off with Conal Holdings so one of our partners is E-Co of Thailand for the Saranggani plant,” he said.

Power to be generated from these power projects would be sold by CHC to Mindanao-based electric cooperatives and to the grid through the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM).

He said they are also targeting the market not being served yet by large distribution utilities in the province.