Napocor to use Semirara coal for Calaca plant

The National Power Corp. (Napocor) has decided to source its coal requirement for the Calaca power plant from the Semirara mines.

The 600-megawatt (MW) Calaca I & II power plant in Batangas consumes some 300,000 metric tons of coal annually which Napocor used to source from foreign suppliers – mostly Australian and Indonesian –through public bidding.

Napocor president Federico E. Puno said government could be spared from spending its precious dollars if Calaca could utilize Semirara coal instead of Australian, Chinese or Indonesian coal.

Puno said Calaca II can operate on 100-percent Semirara coal while unit I can either utilize a blend of imported and local coal.

"If Calaca’s Unit I utilizes 100-percent locally-produced coal it will only run at a capacity of 200 MW instead of its maximum 300-MW utilizing a blend. But then we do not need to run Unit I’s maximum capacity since we can maximize power from the Pagbilao, Sual and Masinloc coal-fired power plants without prejudice to the overall requirements," he explained.

Napocor actually held a bidding last Dec. 7 for the supply of imported coal. But the three bids that were submitted all surpassed the desired price ceiling, Napocor said.

The price ceiling is based on the average price of Indonesian coal when the peso was still in the P30 or so range to the US dollar, or roughly the price of Indonesian coal during the 1999 coal supply bidding.– Ted Torres