AMERICAN giant GE is participating in an ongoing auction to build a major power project in the Philippines.
“We have several discussions going. Actually, there is a negotiation ongoing in Vietnam. We are bidding for big project in the Philippines,” GE Steam Power Systems Asia Pacific Regional Sales Leader Massimo Gallizioli said.
He did not identify the power project, saying it is “still very confidential”. However, he said, results of the bidding would be known very soon. GE, he said, joins two other EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) contractors for the power project.
GE has built Asia’s first ultra-supercritical power plant in Malaysia. The technology is the current gold standard for coal-fired power plants in the world.
It pioneered the supercritical steam generation and is today one of the technology leaders in advanced and ultra-supercritical technology. Its latest-generation of thermal-power station operates with steam at very high temperature and pressure, known as ultra-supercritical conditions. This increases the power-station efficiency to as much as 46 percent. Each percentage-point increase in efficiency reduces carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2 percent to 3 percent.
The Philippines is still dependent on coal as a source of power generation, mainly because it is cheaper compared to other types of fuel source to fire up a power plant.