Filinvest shelves LNG project for P25-B coal-biomass power plant

MANILA, Philippines - Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC) is putting aside its plan to build liquefied-natural gas (LNG) power plants with a capacity of 1,650 megawatts (MW), and is instead pursuing putting up power plants running on clean coal and biomass with a lower capacity in the meantime as it waits for the government’s master plan on LNG.

“We are in the meantime, not concentrating on LNG,” FDC utilities president Jesus Alcordo told reporters following FDC’s stockholders meetng yesterday.

He said the firm intends to wait for the master plan of the government on LNG before pursuing the LNG power plants.

The firm, he said, has also pushed back its plan to build the LNG power plants amid higher LNG prices following the tsunami which hit Japan in March of last year.

Last year, FDC said it had plans of building four LNG power plants with a total capacity of 1,650 MW within the next five years.

Alcordo said that in the meantime, the firm intends to build power plants running on clean coal and biomass with a total capacity of 200 MW.

FDC chairman Jonathan Gotianun said in the same event that building the power plants with a total capacity of 200 MW would cost about P25 billion.

“Roughly, P25 billion will be the project cost but it depends because we still have to go through final designs and it depends on location, size, (and) specific technology,” he said.

He also said the funds for the project have already been prepared.

Asked when the project is expected to start, he said that it would depend on when the approvals are secured.

Alcordo said though that they would “break ground in September.”

He said that the locations being eyed for the power plants are Camarines Sur, Davao, Cebu, Negros as well as Mindanao.

Gotianun said the project is expected to be completed after two to three years.

“Generally, it takes about two to three years to build,” he said.

He said that building the power plants may even be done at a much faster pace depending on preparations undertaken.