Masinloc Power starts expansion of Zambales coal-fired plant

MANILA, Philippines - Expansion work for the 630-megawatt (MW) Masinloc coal-fired power plant in Zambales is now in full swing, Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd. (MPPCL) said.

MPPCL held the groundbreaking Thursday for the construction of a 335-MW (gross) expansion unit of the Masinloc plant, Thai power firm Electricity Generating Public Co. Ltd. (EGCO) disclosed to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

EGCO owns 40.95 percent of the Masinloc plant. Its partners are  the local unit of American energy giant AES Corp. which has a 51 percent stake, and International Finance Corp. (IFC) with 8.05 percent.

“The scheduled commercial operation date for the expansion unit will be mid-2019,” EGCO president Chanin Chaonirattisai said.

“The expansion unit will be one of the first facilities in the Philippines, along with EGCO’s San Buenaventura plant, to utilize the supercritical boiler technology leading to higher efficiency and significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in comparison to traditional sub-critical boiler technology,” he added.

Supercritical coal-fired power plants operate at higher pressures leading to higher efficiencies and significant reductions in emissions over the expected life of the plant.

Earlier, AES Philippines managing director Neeraj Bhat said the cost of the new plant is estimated at around $700 million, which will be a combination of roughly 70 percent debt and 30 percent equity.

In December last year, MPPCL closed a $525-million funding deal from a consortium of local banks.

The balance, Chaonirattisai said, will be financed with owners equity.

The existing 600-MW power plant in Zambales is one of the largest base-load clean-coal power plants in the Philippines.

The existing and initial expansion of the plant will cover their baseload power requirements of the seven electric cooperatives (ECs) in Northern Luzon, collectively called Region 1 and the Cordillera Administrative Region (the R1+CAR ECs), for the next 20 years.

Apart from the Masinloc plant expansion, EGCO is working with Meralco Power Gen Corp. (MGen), the power generation arm of power distributor giant Manila Electric Co., for the 460-megawatt (MW) coal power project under San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co. in Mauban, Quezon.