Apervi affiliate inks coal supply deal with Thai firm

CEBU, Philippines - North Negros Power Corp.  recently signed a long term coal supply agreement with Thailand-based Energy Earth Public Company Ltd. (Energy Earth) for the latter to supply at least 20,000,000 metric tons of coal for 25 years.

The P15 billion deal is aimed at ensuring steady supply of coal for its power plant operations in barangay Banquerohan, in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental.

NNEPC is an affiliate of consortium Asia Pacific Energy Resources Ventures Inc. (Apervi), a Bacolod-based mining, construction, and energy producer company and Sparkling Capital Limited of France, a French power and investment firm.

Top officials of the Apervi-Sparkling consortium led by Apervi  president and chief executive officer Ceasar Ibañez Lao-as and Sparkling Commodities Chairman Jacques Assouline signed the agreement with Energy Earth Chairman Phisudhi Phihakendr early this week.

In an interview with Lao-as yesterday, he said that the Apervi-Sparkling consortium and Energy Earth also signed a joint venture agreement for mining in Indonesia as well as a memorandum of understanding for the three firms to venture into other coal fired power plants in the country.

According to Lao-as, the long term coal supply agreement was necessary to ensure sustainable supply of coal for NNEPC's P15.5- billion circulating fluidized bed-combustion coal-fired power plant.

The plant is expected to generate 150 to 300 megawatts (MW) and address the 250-MW projected power deficit in Visayas from 2015 to 2017.

"The Philippines needs to consume 14-16 million metric tons of coal to supply the existing power plants but our country only produces four million metric tons so the remaining 10-million metric tons we need to import from Indonesia, China, and Thailand," Lao-as said.

Apervi-Sparkling will also serve as a platform for Energy Earth to enter into the Philippine market bringing its reputation of reliability and uncompromising standard with regard to commodity supply.

With this, Apervi-Sparkling will take the project as its initial step to becoming a dominant player in power production and coal supply.

"We are committed to providing sustainable baseload power supply for the province for Negros Occidental," Assouline said in a statement.

Lao-as said the power plant, which is targeted operational by last quarter of 2018, is expected to drop current prices of electricity to P8-9 per kilowatt hour (kwh) compared to the P14-P18 per kwh that consumers are currently paying.

Cadiz City sources 80 percent of its power from Kepco-Cebu through a submarine cable. This means also that Cebu will have an extra power supply reserve to accommodate the uprising demand here, once the plant is operational.

Assuring that the power plant will not harm the environment, Lao-as said the project has acquired an environmental compliance certificate from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Apervi also conducted an environmental impact assessment study on the project.

NNEPC will break ground its multibillion-peso power investment within the last quarter of the year. (FREEMAN)