Masinloc expansion starts

Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd., an affiliate of Electricity Generating Public Co. Ltd. (Egco), has started construction work for the 335-MW Masinloc II project in Zambales.

In a disclosure to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, Egco said Masinloc Power or MPPCL recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion unit which would be located at the site of the existing 630-MW Masinloc power plant of MPPCL in Zambales.

The expansion unit is scheduled for commercial operation in mid-2019.

Egco said that on Dec. 1, 2015, MPPCL entered into an omnibus expansion unit financing agreement with its Philippine lenders Bank of the Philippine Islands, Philippine National Bank, Security Bank Corp. and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.

The expansion financing involves $525 million which will be used for the construction of the new unit.

The expansion unit will be among the first facilities in the Philippines, along with Egco’s San Buenaventura Plant, to use the supercritical boiler technology, which is said to result in higher efficiency and significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in comparison to traditional sub-critical boiler technology.

MPPCL is a limited partnership registered in the Philippines, in which Egco is an investor together with AES Corp. of the United States and International Finance Corp., with shares of 40.95 percent, 51 percent and 8.05 percent, respectively.

Neeraj Bhat, managing director of AES for the Philippines, told reporters on the sidelines of the Innovation Infrastructure Congress organized by the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines that MPPCL would spend “north of $700 million” for the Masinloc II project.

“We signed a number of power sales agreements with Northern Luzon and some other customers so we expect to enter construction very soon. Limited works start this year and we will be online in 2019,” Bhat said.

He was referring to power supply agreements signed with seven electric cooperatives in Region 1 and the Cordillera Administrative Region earlier this year. An aggregated capacity of 92 MW would be supplied from the 300-MW expansion of the Masinloc power plant once it goes online.

AES has signed up an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the first 300 MW expansion, Bhat said. Another 300 MW may be built in the future, he said.

Through its acquisition of the Masinloc I facility from state-run National Power Corp. in 2008, AES became the largest foreign investor in the country’s power sector. Riza T. Olchondra