2 MGEN plants seen running by ’18

Meralco PowerGen Corp., the power generation arm of distribution utility Manila Electric Co., is targeting to have two natural gas facilities up and running in five to six years, as it moves to help ensure adequate power supply in the Luzon grid.

In a briefing Monday, MGEN general manager Aaron Domingo said the company and its partners were scheduled to complete within the year various studies that would prove the feasibility of a natural gas-fired power plant in Atimonan, Quezon, and another 1,500-megawatt natural gas-fired plant in Tabangao, Batangas.

The Tabangao plant will be put up near the Department of Energy’s $2.1-billion Batangas-Manila natural gas pipeline, and the Shell Companies’ planned $1-billion regasification terminal.

MGEN and Japanese electric utilities provider Chubu Electric Power are teaming up for the Quezon LNG project, which will be designed to  generate between 1,200 MW and 1,750 MW of power by 2018.

“The technical and environmental site evaluation to determine the site’s suitability for the power plant and was completed in December 2012. The study indicated that the site was suitable for that purpose. The Grid Impact Study is being conducted by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines to determine the optimal connection scheme for the project,” Domingo explained.

He added that the Environmental Impact Assessment of the Quezon LNG project was already completed and submitted to the Environment Management Bureau in December 2012. However, its environment compliance certificate has yet to be issued.

For its Batangas LNG project, Domingo said the company expected  the facility to be ready for commissioning  by 2019.

To recall, MGEN has executed last year an agreement with Shell to study the feasibility of locating a nominal 1,500-MW power plant at the site of the Shell refinery in Batangas. The MGEN plant would be fired on re-gasified LNG to be supplied by a floating storage and re-gas facility (“FSRU”) that Shell was planning to install in Batangas.