Trans-Asia plans 135-MW coal-fed plant in Mindanao

Phinma-led Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. is expanding its power generation portfolio in northern Mindanao, where it plans to build a P13-billion, 135-megawatt coal-fired power plant to address the growing demand on the island.

According to Trans-Asia president Francisco Viray, the project was still in the early stages with the company still under the pre-engineering component. The company also has yet to look for a more suitable location for the power project, probably somewhere in the Cagayan or Iligan area, as well as partners for the venture.

Viray noted that they expected to come up with a final investment decision within the first half of 2013 to be able to complete the coal-fired power project by 2016. By next year, Trans-Asia should already have a partner for the Mindanao project.

Viray acknowledged that there were a number of companies planning to put up or currently constructing baseload power facilities in Mindanao. However, he noted the rising requirement for capacity as driving their decision to move forward with the power project.

“Our assumption is that the installed capacity of the [hydropower complexes] will not be recovered anymore. The [installed capacity] is about 900 megawatts so the output now is only about 80 percent on a sustainable basis. Immediately, you’re losing about 200 MW and that’s the opportunity for us, plus the power demand growth,” Viray explained.

Mindanao sources roughly half of its electricity requirements from the Agus and Pulangi hydropower complexes, making it vulnerable to adverse weather conditions like the prolonged drought in 2010. During that time, the two power facilities were operating at less than 10 percent of their installed capacities, thus crippling the island with eight- to 10-hour power outages.

The planned rehabilitation for some of the units for the power complexes also remained pending. As of Friday, the Mindanao grid posted a power supply deficit of 269 MW.

Meanwhile, Trans-Asia also reported a net income of P347.84 million in the first nine months of the year, up from P201.19 million in the same period last year.

Consolidate revenues for the first three quarters of the year also rose 38 percent to P1.16 billion form P835.68 million due to higher sales and power rates. Generation revenues alone rose to P51.73 million from P42.52 million due to higher power rates and energy sold by the company’s Guimaras power plant, which began supplying power only in March 2011.