MANILA, Philippines - The South Luzon Thermal Corp. (SLTEC), a tandem of the Ayala Group and the Phinma Group, has doubled the capacity of its Batangas coal-fired power plant to 270 megawatts (MW) after the second unit achieved commercial operations.
In a statement, SLTEC announced the start of operations of its second 135-MW unit in Calaca, Batangas, bringing additional power supply to the Luzon grid.
The firm said construction of the second unit was completed in the second half of 2015.
“It was synchronized to the grid on Aug. 15, 2015 and passed reliability and performance tests early this year,” SLTEC said.
The first unit of the 2x135 MW coal-fired facility started operations on April 24, 2015 and achieved gross generation output of 553.8 gwh by end-2015.
Currently, Unit 1 is under annual preventive maintenance, whose output will be covered by the newly-operated Unit 2.
Under the terms of the agreement, SLTEC will operate as a base load plant and will sell its entire capacity to Trans-Asia through a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement.
The P23-billion, 2x135-MW power plant in Calaca, Batangas utilizes clean coal technology or Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) to reduce emissions and minimize environmental impact.
SLTEC is a 50-50 joint venture between Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. and AC Energy Holdings Inc.
Trans-Asia is the energy arm of the PHINMA Group, while AC Energy is the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ayala Corp.