Alsons explores energy prospects in Indonesia

Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. remains keen on exploring energy opportunities in Indonesia, as part of its expansion plans outside Mindanao, where most of its power assets are located.

“We have our hands full here, but Eastern Indonesia remains attractive for power generation, coal or gas,” said Tomas I. Alcantara, chair and president of Alsons Consolidated.

The company, through its shareholder Alsons Power Holdings Corp., already owns and operates a 60-megawatt diesel peaking plant in South Sulawesi in Indonesia, in partnership with Japan’s Toyota Tsusho Corp., the trading company of the Toyota Group.

At present, the Alcantara group has a number of power projects in the pipeline. Collectively, the projects may generate an additional 282 megawatts for the Mindanao grid by 2016, a move that will significantly ease the power supply crunch on the electricity-starved island.

The new projects are expected to hike the company’s total power generation capacity to 436 MW by 2016, which may be enough to serve at least a fourth of Mindanao’s estimated peak demand.

The additional 282 MW will come from three projects of its subsidiaries: Mapalad Power Corp.’s Iligan diesel plant, which will generate 98 MW starting September this year; Sarangani Energy Corp.’s coal plant in Maasim, Sarangani, which in August 2015 will generate a total of 105 MW under the first phase of the project; and San Ramon Power Inc.’s 105-MW coal-fed facility in Zamboanga City, which will go online by 2016.

The Alcantara group has also been tapped by Sagittarius Mines Inc. to put up a $900-million 400-MW power facility that will solely serve the requirements of the Tampakan copper-gold mine in South Cotabato.