A HONG KONG-based firm and a Korean consortium are expected to complete their respective natural gas power projects by 2013, when power supply is deemed to dwindle to critical levels.

Jesus Tamang, director for the energy policy and planning bureau at the Department of Energy, said Energy World International Ltd. (EWI) and a consortium, composed of Korea Western Power Co. Ltd., SK E&C and Archinet International Inc., were scheduled to start the commercial operations of their respective facilities in three years? time.

EWI is putting up a 300-megawatt (MW) liquefied natural gas and combined cycle gas turbine in Pagbilao, Quezon.

According to Tamang, ground preparation for the power plant is already ongoing. The company was able to secure earlier the necessary permits to construct, operate and maintain a liquefied natural gas terminal.

?The power plant component of the project has yet to be formally advised to the DOE,? Tamang added.

He said the company was also in talks with several local banks, such as Banco de Oro Universal Bank, for project financing.

?As soon as they are able to confirm partnership with the financial institutions, then maybe that will be the time they will advise the DOE on their 300-MW (power generation) project,? he said.

?They are now looking at providing for the gas requirement of other areas, including the Visayas. If the terminal is going to be in Pagbilao, there will be no stopping the (energy and transport industries) from buying gas from them,? Tamang said.

In the meantime, the Korean companies are planning to relocate a 480-MW natural gas-fired power plant from Korea to a proposed site in Mariveles, Bataan.

Tamang said that although the planned power plant would initially have a capacity of 480 MW, the terminal and the facility could be easily expanded to accommodate and generate as much as 1,200 MW over the long-term.

?The Korean consortium is looking at (completing the power plant project) by 2013 but I think it would still depend on whether it will be able to confirm if the site in Mariveles can (house) an LNG terminal.? Tamang added.

The consortium, according to Tamang, plans to import the LNG it will use for the Mariveles power facility from the Middle East and Australia.