Alsons targets 1,000-MW power capacity by 2020

Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. (ACR), the publicly-listed company of the Alcantara Group, is expanding its power generation business to a capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW) by 2020.

On the sidelines of the company’s annual stockholders meeting, ACR chair and president Tomas I. Alcantara told reporters, “What is going online are the three plants: SEC 1 (Sarangani Energy Corp.), SEC2, and SRPI (San Ramon Power, Inc.). Then we have the hydros. And then we are counting on the 400-MW power requirement that Tampakan (copper-gold project of Sagittarius Mines Inc.) will be needing.”

ACR executive vice president Tirso G. Santillan Jr., who is also CEO of energy arm Alsons Power, said the group would have 590MW in capacity by 2019 and then this raise to 1000MW or more by 2020.

Part of ACR’s expansion plan includes the SEC plant in Sarangani reaching its full 210MW capacity in 2016. That will serve an additional 3.8 million people residing in Cotabato, South Cotabato and Zamboanga del Norte. The $570-million SEC plant is the single biggest investment in Sarangani province and Region 12.

Initially, the plant will have an output of 105MW in 2015 for about 3.47 million people in Sarangani, General Santos City, and key areas in South Cotabato, Compostela Valley, Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur and most of Davao del Norte.

Also furthering the expansion is the development of the 105-MW SRPI coal-fired plant in Sitio San Ramon, Talisayan in Zamboanga City. The SRPI plant is set to provide baseload power to Zamboanga and other key municipalities in the region.

Alcantara noted the company’s re-acquisition and rehabilitation of Mapalad Power Corp. (MPC), the first of ACR’s expansion efforts. MPC’s operations commenced on May 2013 in time to provide needed power for the 2013 midterm elections. MPC is now operating at a capacity of 103 megawatts (MW), providing power to Iligan City, General Santos City, Zamboanga City and other key areas of Mindanao.