By Victor V. Saulon, Sub-Editor
ILOILO CITY — Global Business Power Corp. (GBP) on Tuesday launched a learning institute in Iloilo City where its employees can enhance their skills in responding to power plant operational and maintenance contingencies as the company prepares for expansion.
“It took us two years to build this,” said GBP President Jaime T. Azurin in a press conference on the sidelines of the GBP Institute for Energy (GIE) launch in Brgy. Ingore, La Paz District, Iloilo City.
He placed the investment in the institute at “close to P300 million,” with existing employees initially as the institute’s students. GIE places the company in a good position in the face of its plan to build up its renewable energy (RE) portfolio to produce 300 megawatts (MW).
“We just finished our new five-year vision, and it will talk about sustainable energy solutions,” Mr. Azurin said, adding the strategy starts in 2019 and ends in 2023.
The capacity of GBP by end-2023 would be at least 1,500 MW, of which 30% are targeted to come from renewables. The expansion is expected to cost around P4 billion to P5 billion.
“Sustainable energy solutions, the way we define it, is basically mixing renewable sources with fossil-based fuel,” Mr. Azurin said.
GBP has an existing capacity of 854 MW of mostly coal-fired power plants. It is one of the leading independent power producers in the Visayas, with facilities in Cebu, Iloilo, Aklan and Mindoro.
“Let’s face reality. Renewables will not be able to address all the power requirements of a growing economy. But our strategy is to minimize fossil-based fuel. So as we do renewable projects [what becomes their] back up are fossil-based fuel [plants],” he said.
Mr. Azurin said the company has about 5 hectares to develop solar farms, starting with “maybe 20, 30, 40 [MW]” as it increases “the renewable part of the delivery of power.”
“Of course, there are projects to be developed,” he said, adding the company is open to acquiring existing solar power projects, especially “stranded” ones or those that were built at a huge investment but failed to secure a guaranteed rate for the power they produce.
The GBP official said that to be able to jumpstart GBP’s foray into renewable energy, it would need acquisitions as part of its “cycle of development” that requires projects with existing operations, which the company plans to buy, as well plants under construction or in the pre-development phase.
Mr. Azurin said the company could not wait for two years to construct a power plant, thus the need for acquisitions to quickly achieve the five-year target capacity.
“So dapat meron kaming mabili (So we have to buy something),” he said.
GBP’s gross capacity of 854 MW in the Visayas is through subsidiaries Panay Energy Development Corp. with 314 MW, Toledo Power Co. with 182 MW, Cebu Energy Development Corp. with 246 MW, Panay Power Corp. with 104.5 MW, and GBH Power Resources, Inc. with 7.5 MW.
The total is a significant increase from its 185.5 MW in 2003 when it was starting out as Mirant Global Corp.
In Luzon, GBP is putting up two identical units of 335-MW coal-fired power in Luna, La Union.
In June 2017, Alsons Consolidated Resources, Inc. announced GBP’s acquisition of a 50% stake in Alsons Thermal Energy Corp., which holds the Alcantara’s baseload coal-fired power plant assets. The acquired company owns 75% of the 210-MW Sarangani Energy Corp. coal-fired power plant in Maasim, Sarangani province.
“There may be opportunities, which we are looking at like Bicol… We’ve been scouting the Philippines,” he said, adding that the lookout is for “critical areas” where power plants can be built. “Bicol is one.”
Mr. Azurin said the company is “almost the end of our development stage of using pump storage for ancillary” services.
“It’s a specially designed plant,” he said.
