Calaca plant expansion ready by summer

MANILA, Philippines - DMCI Holdings of the Consunji Group said it expects the first 150-megawatt expansion of its Calaca coal-fired power plant in Batangas to be ready by the summer of 2015.

“It would be synchronized to the grid by the end of April,” said DMCI Holdings chairman and president Isidro Consunji.

The second phase of the expansion, which is another 150 MW, is expected to be completed two months after or by June, he added.

Consunji said the project would help augment supply in Luzon especially as the grid has entered the critical period.

The expansion would eventually bring the total capacity of the Calaca power plant to 1,250 MW from 600 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 expansion would help boost supply this summer following the one-month maintenance shutdown of the Malampaya deep water gas-to-power project in offshore Palawan from March 15 to April 13.

The Malampaya gas field supplies power to three natural gas power plants in Luzon – the 1,200 MW Ilijan, the 1,000 MW Santa Rita and 500 MW San Lorenzo natural gas plants – which account for 40 percent of Luzon’s power requirements.

As of yesterday, the Luzon grid had enough reserves at 1,777 MW while system capacity was at 9797 MW and system demand at 7717 MW, according to data from the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), the grid operator.

Last month, DMCI inaugurated a 15-MW bunker-fired diesel power plant in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro.

The plant will partially supply the power requirements of its off-taker, Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative, the local distribution utility, for 20 years.