MANILA, Philippines - A Mindanao-focused independent power producer is on track to start operations by September 2015 of the first 105-megawatt phase of its 210-MW coal-fired power plant in the coastal town of Maasim in Sarangani, as it completed a critical component that will ensure safe and efficient operation of the facility.
The Alcantara Group’s Alsons Power unit said Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd. of South Korea, its engineering, procurement and construction contractor, has completed the foundation work for the power plant’s boiler and steam turbine generator building.
The foundation work is a critical core component of the power plant of Sarangani Energy Corp. (SEC), as it will house the circulating fluidized bed boiler where low sulfur coal will be burned to generate steam that will run the turbine generators.
Basic engineering and construction for the SEC plant began in June 2012 and went into high gear with the official turnover of the construction site to Daelim on Feb. 8 last year. Clearing operations for the plant site were completed on June 20 last year.
The SEC plant is intended to be part of a long-term solution to the current power shortage in Mindanao, where four- to eight-hour power interruptions have been occurring since the summer of 2012.
The full 105-MW capacity of the plant’s first section has been booked by various Mindanao power cooperatives servicing more than two million customers in the entire province of Sarangani, General Santos City, Butuan City, the cities of Tagum and Samal in Davao del Norte, the entire province of Agusan del Sur, and the entire province of Compostela Valley.
Although construction for the second phase has not started, the South Cotabato I Electric Cooperative Inc. servicing Koronadal City and seven towns in South Cotabato has signed a power supply agreement to ensure that it will get 10 MW of the plant’s second 105-MW section when it starts operating by 2016.
Apart from the SEC plant, Alsons Power is also developing the 105-MW San Ramon Power Inc. coal-fired power plant in Talisayan, Zamboanga City.
Other Alsons Power subsidiaries include the Western Mindanao Power Corp.’s 100-MW diesel plant in Zamboanga City, the Southern Philippines Power Corp.’s 55-MW diesel plant in Sarangani, Mapalad Power Corp.’s 98-MW Iligan diesel power plant, and power plant operations and management company Alto Power Management Corp.