MANILA, Philippines - DMCI Holdings of the Consunji Group is targeting to have its 150-megawatt coal-fired power plant expansion in Batangas available by the summer of 2015.
Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said the new plant would now be online on April 1, 2015.
“DMCI has formally submitted documents saying that their new plant will now be online on April 1, 2015 (150 MW) and the other 150 MW will be online on July 1, 2015,” Petilla said.
DMCI’s latest target is a welcome development for the Department of Energy (DOE) on the back of a looming power supply shortage in the summer of 2015.
Last month, the company informed the DOE that the first 150-MW expansion of the 600-MW Calaca coal-fired power plant in Batangas would be delayed.
The planned expansion would eventually bring the total capacity of the power plant to 1,250 MW. The first phase of the expansion involves the construction of two units of a 150-MW circulating bed power plant for a total of 300 MW while the second phase involves a single unit of 350 MW.
The target commissioning of the power plant has been moved several times already.
Originally, the plan was to have the first 150-MW unit ready by the end of 2014 and then this was moved to March 2015 and then to June 2015.
Now, the latest target is April 2015.
Petilla said the DMCI plant is supposed to be the biggest plant coming in before the summer of 2015.
The delays in the commissioning of power plants add to the growing number of energy woes the country will be facing in the summer of 2015 when there is a projected power supply shortage of 800 megawatts.
According to the DOE, the Luzon grid will need 9,011 MW of power next year, higher than this year’s demand of 8,717 MW on the back of the projected growth in the economy.
The projection takes into account unplanned or forced outages among the country’s aging power plants, which are becoming more frequent and are expected to result in a power deficiency of 600 megawatts to 950 MW in the summer of 2015.
President Aquino has asked Congress for special powers to tap additional capacity for the summer but lawmakers have yet to approve the request.