Millennium Energy’s Navotas facility may be delayed

MANILA, Philippines - The 100-megawatt Navotas facility of Millennium Energy, which is targeted to come online by March 2015 to help augment critical power supply in the Luzon grid next summer, is at risk of being delayed, marking yet another addition to the country’s energy woes, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said over the weekend.

Petilla said Millennium Energy is having problems with the First Port Development Authority in Navotas which owns the property where the plant is situated.

“Millennium Energy has a problem with the Fish port Dev’t Authority (FPDA). Its Navotas Power Plant is situated in a property under the FPDA. Millennium is sub-leasing the property from Petron Corp. who has given a contract of lease. However, FPDA has not given the permission to start the rehabilitation project as, according, to them, this would still require a Board approval,” Petilla said.

In the meantime, all the deliveries and activities for the power plant are put on “hold order.

“The critical deliveries are due next week. Millennium is very concerned that if FPDA will disallow these, our timetable will be delayed,” Petilla said.

The 100-MW Navotas facility is among the additional capacity the Department of Energy (DOE) is counting on to help avert a looming power shortage in the summer of 2015.

Including the Navotas plant, the DOE is looking at a possible addition in power capacity of 447 MW by March 2015.

Other sources that make up the 447 MW are 100 MW from First Gen Corp.’s Avion plant which will come in by April 2015; 36 MW from the uprating of Millennium Energy’s Limay plant to be ready by March 2015; 20 MW as a result of the rehabilitation of the Bauang plant, also by March 2015; 10 MW from Petron’s Bataan plant to be ready by December 2014; 60 MW from JG Summit’s Batangas plant for commissioning in January 2015 and 20 MW from the Botocan hydroelectric plant in Laguna for completion in December 2014 for a sub-total of 246 MW.

The balance of the 447 MW will come from a conservative estimate of at least 101 MW from Interruptible Load Program and supposedly 100 MW from Millennium Energy’s Navotas facility.

The 447 MW in additional capacity has a “99 percent chance” of coming in by March 2015, according to the documents.

According to the latest data from the DOE, the Luzon grid needs 678 MW of generation capacity next summer to cover the 647-MW contingency reserves and 31 MW of deficit.

President Aquino has asked Congress for special powers to invoke Section 71 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA) to allow the government to tap additional capacity for the summer.

Congress has yet to approve the President’s request.

With or without special powers, Petilla has already appealed to all electricity consumers to conserve power and manage their consumption.