Visayas grid to add 340-MW supply by 2019 second quarter

MANILA, Philippines — The Visayas grid will get an additional supply of 340 megawatts (MW) in the second quarter from the teamup of Aboitiz Power Corp. and Vivant Corp.

Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI), the joint venture company of AboitizPower and Vivant, is still testing and commissioning its 2x170-MW coal-fired power plant in Toledo City, Cebu.

The power project was earlier projected to start commercial operations by mid-2018 but it experienced technical issues with turbines.

These technical issues would “delay commercial operation date of the first unit to June 2019 and the second unit to April of 2019,” AboitizPower said.

TVI is 80 percent owned by AboitizPower subsidiary Therma Power Inc. and 20 percent by Vivant Integrated Generation Corp. (VIGC), a subsidiary of Vivant through wholly-owned Vivant Energy Corp. (VEC).

The power plant consists of two 170-MW steam turbine generator units and two circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers, which use coal to boil water and create high-pressure steam to generate electricity.

TVI tapped Hyundai Engineering Co. Ltd. and Galing Power Energy Co. Inc. as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the project.

Construction of the power project commenced in March 2015 after the company issued the notice to proceed for all EPC activities.

The TVI plant is part of the over 500-MW new capacity AboitizPower is putting on stream this year.

The other projects include the 19-MW La Trinidad hydropower plant in La Trinidad, Benguet under subsidiary Hedcor Inc.

La Trinidad Hydro broke ground last year and is expected to produce 62 million kilowatt-hours of clean and renewable energy annually when it begins commercial operation in the second half.

The plant is expected to operate under the feed-in tariff (FIT) program for run-of-river hydro. The energy department has given a two-year extension for the FIT allocation for biomass and run-of-river technologies.

The other project is the first unit of the 2x668-MW Dinginin supercritical coal-fired power plant in Mariveles, Bataan, which is expected to start operating this year.

It is undertaken by GN Power Dinginin Ltd. Co. (GNPD), a partnership composed of AboitizPower’s Therma Power Inc. (TPI), AC Energy Holdings Inc. of the Ayala Group, and Power Partners Ltd. Co.