Aboitiz Power unit firms up deals for Cebu plant

A subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corp. (Aboitiz Power) is firming up financing and construction contracts for a P41-billion coal-fired power plant in Cebu province.

The facility is expected to help meet growing demand for more electricity capacity in the Visayas grid by 2016.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, AboitizPower said its subsidiary, Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI), signed an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract with Hyundai Engineering Co. Ltd and Galing Power Energy Co Inc. after two months of negotiations.

AboitizPower said TVI would soon issue a limited notice to proceed to perform design engineering and detailed physical data collection in preparation for the construction of the 300-megawatt net capacity baseload power plant located in Sitio Looc, Barangay Bato, Toledo City, Cebu.

The project’s generating equipment will consist of 2 170-megawatt steam turbines and 2 circulating fluidized bed boilers, which burn solid fuels such as coal.

According to AboitizPower, it is currently working to seal the deals with local financing institutions.

TVI’s project is targeted to go online by the third quarter 2017.

“We look forward to working closely on this project with our EPC contractor and the local community to ensure we deliver a quality power plant on time. This project will assure Cebuanos that we will have adequate and competitively priced baseload power supply on the island by 2017. This is a very important project for the Visayas grid,” AboitizPower CEO Erramon I. Aboitiz said.

The Department of Energy said that the years 2015-2018 would be critical for the Visayas grid.

The TVI project has been expedited to meet this looming power deficit, AboitizPower. The project is also expected to create more than 1,500 new jobs during construction, and about 150 new permanent jobs once it becomes operational.