Korean firm to put up Subic power plant

Shipbuilder HHIC-Philippines is putting up a power plant to supply its own electricity requirements in Subic Bay. PHOTO FROM HHIC-PHIL.COM

Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Co. Ltd.-Philippines Inc. will put up a 200-megawatt (MW) power plant within the Subic Bay Economic Zone to supply its electricity requirements.

Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said the planned facility was under the memorandum of understanding that the government signed with the Korean government last Monday for the establishment of a power plant in Subic.

The 200 MW that the plant would generate would be just about enough to cover all of HHIC-Philippines’ power requirements, he said. Anything in excess could be fed to the grid, “but I don’t think that’s part of Hanjin’s plans at the moment.”

The planned generation facility would most likely use coal as fuel, he said.

Almendras and South Korea Minister of Knowledge Economy Hong Suk Woo signed an MOU for the construction of a power plant within the Subic ecozone last Monday, on the sidelines of South Korea President Lee Myung Bak’s three-day state visit to the country.

Almendras declined to say whether or not other generation plants would be put up under the MOU apart from the planned coal-fired power facility that HHIC-Philippines was planning to construct.

However, the MOU did state that a power facility using clean technology would be put up within the Subic ecozone to help augment the current capacity of the Luzon grid.

Lee, in a speech last Monday, committed to boost South Korea’s partnership with the Philippines in various sectors, particularly infrastructure, agriculture, tourism and climate change mitigation.

He said Korean companies were keen on participating in the government’s flagship public-private partnership program.