First Gen boosting capacity as Batangas gas plants run

MANILA, Philippines - First Gen Corp. of the Lopez Group will boost the capacity of the Luzon grid by end-2015 and mid 2016 through its two natural gas power facilities in Batangas despite some delays due to site preparation, its top official said.

Construction of the 97-megawatt (MW) Avion open cycle natural gas power plant and the 414-MW San Gabriel natural gas power plant are “progressing,” First Gen president and COO  Francis Giles Puno told reporters on the sidelines of Power Trends 2015 late Wednesday.

“Avion’s a little late. It will come online by the end of the year. San Gabriel will be in the second quarter of next year,” he said.

Puno said the company has earmarked an investment cost of $700-750 million, broken down into $100-150 million for the Avion plant and $550-600 million for the San Gabriel plant.

However, Puno noted the company had to push back the start of commercial operation of both plants due to “delays on site preparation.”

The Avion natural gas power plant was originally scheduled to run ahead of summer this year.

Meanwhile, the San Gabriel plant was eyed to start operating before summer of 2016.

Recently, the Lopez power unit closed a $200-million loan with BDO Unibank Inc. to finance the capital expenditures of its subsidiaries.

Once completed, the output of the Avion and San Gabriel plants would be initially sold to the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), Puno noted.

Both plants are being built near the First Gen’s 1,000-MW Sta. Rita and 500-MW San Lorenzo natural gas plants in Batangas, which supply a big chunk of Manila Electric Co.’s power requirements.