PALM Concepcion Power Corp., a subsidiary of A Brown Co. Inc., on Monday said it received the Department of Energy’s (DOE) notice of reclassifying its 200-megawatt (MW) Concepcion coal-fired power plant to “committed” instead of “indicative.”
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Palm said it received the attached letter from the DOE reclassifying the two 100-MW units of the proposed Concepcion coal-fired power plant project.
In its correspondence, DOE took note of Palm’s letter stating that BDO Capital has committed to arrange the project debt financing requirements of the project.
BDO Capital earlier had informed the department that the debt financing of the project is subject to the DOE’s reclassification of the project.
Palm’s power project is expected to provide the required capacities by 2015 given that the target commissioning of the Phase 1 is being targeted for the third quarter of 2015 and Phase 2 by November 2016.Target financial closing of the project with BDO is by the second quarter of 2012.
“So as not cause any delay in negotiations with BDO and consequently in the project implementation, we hereby list the project as committed in the 2012 list of power projects,” DOE said.
In a presentation, Energy Undersecretary Josefina Patricia Asirit told reporters that they have already adjusted projections for the Visayas grid by a year earlier than initially projected.
Based on adjusted projections, Asirit said the Visayas grid needs 100 MW in 2015 and another 100 MW in 2016 to meet the project growth in demand.
Asirit said the bulk of the growth in power demand is expected to come from the service sector such as call centers and other business process outsourcing companies.
Asirit said there are only three committed projects for the Visayas grid that include the 8-MW Villasiga hydroelectric power plant, the 20-MW Nasulo geothermal power plant, and the 4-MW AE Biomass project which are expected to be commissioned by this year, next year and 2014, respectively.
“Even with the commissioning of these committed power plants, there is still a need for new power plants to come in the Visayas as early as 2015,” Asirit said.
