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GLOBAL
Business Power Corp., a unit of the Metrobank Group of
Companies, is set to sign today a joint-venture deal
with Formosa Heavy Industries (FHI) to construct
power-generation plants using clean-coal technology.
The deal
will cost more than $500 million.
Global
Power said it will also execute an Engineering,
Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract to build a
246-megawatt (MW) power plant at its Toledo Power
Station in Cebu.
Global
Power and Metro Heavy will also sign a memorandum of
understanding to expand Global Power’s Panay power
plant. Formosa Heavy will play the role of investor and
EPC contractor in this transaction. The new plant in
Iloilo City will have a capacity of 164 MWs.
Global
Power is the largest independent power producer in the
Visayas with total plant capacity of over 230 MWs, using
both coal and diesel technologies. It owns and operates
the Toledo Power Station in
Cebu that supplies Visayas Electric Co. (Veco) and Cebu Electric
Cooperative (Cebeco). Global Power also owns the Panay
Power Station that supplies electricity to
Iloilo
City through Panay Electric Cooperative (Peco).
Formosa
Heavy, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Formosa Group of
Companies, owns and operates over 14,000 MWs of
coal-fired plants in Asia, mainly in Taiwan, China and
Vietnam.
The
Formosa Group is a global conglomerate and one of the
largest plastics and petrochemical companies in the
world.
The
joint-venture agreement completes the plans of Global
Power to expand its power plants in Cebu and Panay in
response to an urgent need for more electricity in the
Cebu-Negros-Panay grid.
Global
Power said the
Toledo plant expansion will begin in January 2008 and is targeted
to be completed in early 2010.
The
expanded capacity will be sold to existing customers
like Veco, Cebeco and other cooperatives in the grid.
Aboitiz Power Corp. and Vivant Corp. will also partner
with Global Power in these projects. |
