By Victor V. Saulon, Sub-Editor
PAGBILAO, Quezon — Aboitiz Power Corp. and TeaM Energy Corp. have formally launched on Thursday the 420-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Pagbilao, Quezon that is expected to boost electricity supply in Luzon.
The facility, which costs $976 million to build, stands next to the 735-MW Pagbilao power station’s units 1 and 2, which the partners handle.
“The completion of this project establishes Pagbilao Energy Corp.’s (PEC) partnership with government in pushing the nation’s progress through a cost-effective and reliable power plant that complies with environmental standards,” Antonio R. Moraza, president and chief operating officer of AboitizPower, said during the event which had President Rodrigo R. Duterte as its main guest.
Mr. Moraza also chairs PEC, a joint venture between TPEC Holdings Corp. and Therma Power, Inc., which are in turn wholly owned subsidiaries of TeaM Energy and AboitizPower, respectively.
“The growth of the Philippine economy under the administration of President Duterte will certainly translate to a rising demand for energy in the coming years. This project will help address the country’s development needs moving forward,” PEC President John V. Alcordo said.
“We view this project as an investment in the country’s future. This will light up homes and industries, give comfort to families, enable productivity and help create employment for Filipinos,” said Mr. Alcordo, who is also chairman and chief executive officer of TeaM Energy, which is said to be the single largest Japanese investment in the Philippines.
Construction on the Pagbilao power plant unit 3 began in December 2014.
Erramon I. Aboitiz, chief executive officer of AboitizPower, said the partners in the project had taken the risk of committing equity in an energy conversion agreement structure “to give comfort to our creditors, yet putting more of the offtake risk to the project proponents.”
“Like us, others have followed suit and build additional merchant power plants on the premise that open access will be fully implemented,” he said.
He said the company and others in the power industry are “awaiting the full implementation of open access reducing the thresholds for contestability from 1 MW to 750 kW (kilowatts) and the further reduction to 500 kW and below.”
