MANILA, Philippines – Alsons Power Group will operate two of its three Mindanao-based diesel power plants as merchant facilities this year to address the critical need for power supply in several areas in the region, a ranking company official said.
The group’s plants under Western Mindanao Power Corp. (WMPC) and Southern Philippines Power Corp. (SPPC) were placed under an 18-year energy conversion agreement (ECA) with National Power Corp. (Napocor). This means the output of these plants were exclusively sold to Napocor, which provide supply to off-grid areas.
However, Alsons Power Group vice president and business manager for diesel operations Edgar Sevilles said WMPC is now operating as a merchant plant after its ECA was terminated last Dec. 12.
“WMPC is now a merchant plant starting Dec. 30 and this means we will have multiple customers. Before we only have one customer, which is Napocor,” he said.
The customers of the 100-megawatt (MW) WMPC diesel-fired plant in Zamboanga, now include Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative Inc., Davao Light and Power Co. and Cagayan Electric Power & Light Co. Inc.
“All these distribution utilities are getting power from our plant and we are being dispatched last January at around 54 percent capacity factor. But this month, it will be higher because of the problem with supply so we are estimating that we will go up to 70 percent,” Sevilles noted.
The other Alsons diesel power plant under ECA is the 55-MW SPPC coal plant in Alabel, Sarangani.
The company official noted the output of SPPC is still contracted to Napocor but this will lapse in April 28, 2016.
“After termination, we will revert to a merchant plant operation with multiple customers,” Sevilles said.
Once the ECA is terminated, SPPC will supply to Davao Light, he added.
The company official highlighted that these two plants are the only operating plants in their respective corridors, WMPC in the western part of Mindanao and SPPC in the southern part of the island region.
“WMPC is a very important plant in the grid in such that its location is very strategic as far as power supply of the island is concerned. In case there are line outages, which is also being highlighted recently due to bombings, this plant will support Zamboanga City and Zamboanga Peninsula,” Sevilles said.
Meanwhile, SPPC supports the the southern portion of the island region, which has a high load demand, he added.
Alsons Power Group also owns another diesel plant – the 103-MW plant in Iligan City under Mapalad Power Corp.
Since it was acquired from the Iligan City government in 2013, the 103-MW power plant has been operating as a merchant plant.