ACEN to put up gas turbine plant in Batangas

MANILA, Philippines — AC Energy Corp. (ACEN) is looking to invest P25 billion to put up a 1,200-megawatt (MW) gas turbine power facility in Batangas City aimed at serving the power grid’s mid-merit and peaking requirements.

The project, a generation facility of six 200-MW gas turbines, will be developed under project company Ingrid3 Power Corp. in a leased industrial lot in Barangay Libjo and Malitam, Batangas City, based on a filing with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environment Management Bureau.

The project has an indicative cost of P25 billion which will cover the feasibility study, detailed engineering design, acquisition of permits and licenses, site development, construction of power plant, substation and transmission line components, procurement of necessary equipment and materials, as well as environmental facilities and monitoring activities.

Ingrid3 Power is scheduled to commence pre-construction activities this year and is targeting to start the construction in the third quarter of 2023.

The company is still studying and assessing the offtake for the 1,200-MW capacity which is being considered for mid-merit/load-following and peaking.

Mid-merit plants are those that can fill the gap between baseload or 24/7 supply, and peaking plants that run during peak hours.

The proposed power project can be operated with flexibility to respond to varying demand for electricity throughout the day, according to Ingrid3 Power.

“Gas turbine power plants can be adjusted to accommodate peaks in electricity demand. They are operated mainly during periods of high demand, otherwise they remain standby and are ready to run at any time to provide reserve power when needed,” it said.

“The generation facility, which can be easily and abruptly ramped up or down depending on the need of the grid or of the market, is not expected to run continuously in its full load during its operations. Generators will either be run at partial load or will be kept offline until a huge power deficiency in the grid occurs,” the company said.

Prior to this project, ACEN is completing a 150-MW diesel modular generator set power plant in Pililia, Rizal under Ingrid Power Holdings Inc.

Once completed, the project will provide ancillary services to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) and supply peaking and reserve power to the Luzon grid.

ACEN president and CEO Eric Francia said the peaking plant would be able to complement the intermittent supply being provided by renewable energy projects once renewable energy (RE) policies, such as the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) are in place.

The company  aims to exceed five gigawatts of attributable capacity—with projects here and abroad, to generate at least 50 percent of energy from renewables by 2025, and to become the largest listed renewables platform in Southeast Asia.

As of end-June this year, its attributable capacity is 2,589 MW, of which 80 percent or 2,070 MW are from RE sources.