Nuke plant conversion to coal feasible

COAL CONVERSION The conversion of the mothballed Bataan nuclear power plant into a coal-fired facility is a feasible option, according to the government.

The Philippine government is leaning toward the conversion of the mothballed 630-megawatt Bataan nuclear power plant (BNPP) into a coal-fired facility as this has become a feasible option, according to Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras.

Almendras said this impression was based on the initial findings being conducted by the Department of Science and Technology (DoST), the agency tasked to look for the best technology that could be used to convert the BNPP to run on another fuel type.

“I’m still waiting for the results of the study but I think the government really wants to run the facility. The study is leaning toward more [on using] coal than natural gas because it’s difficult to convert the plant to run on natural gas. The question is, is it going to be more expensive to convert it or to build a new plant,” Almendras said.

“So we will wait [for the full results of the] new studies, the more recent studies. DoST will do the study and we’ll see if technology is capable. Then we will ask companies if they will be interested to bid for the possible conversion project,” Almendras said.

The energy chief stressed the need for new coal-fired facilities in Luzon, given the expected increases in the demand for electricity over the next few years. Having baseload plants will not only ensure supply, but will also help stabilize electricity prices as Luzon will no longer have to end up using the expensive electricity generated by the peaking plants.

However, the state-run National Power Corp. (Napocor), which oversees the maintenance of the BNPP, has urged the Aquino administration to commission a new study that would determine the viability of retrofitting the BNPP, if the present leadership really intended to explore that option.

Napocor president Froilan A. Tampinco said a fresh study would disprove earlier studies claiming that the conversion of the country’s first nuclear facility into gas- or coal-fired facility was technically feasible but not economically viable.

“Let’s invite a new study that will determine if present technologies are now better than what we had before and could thus translate [the BNPP conversion] into a feasible project. I am not discounting that, but if I go by the previous studies, that is really not feasible,” Tampinco said.

Tampinco said the previous studies stressed that the conversion of BNPP would be much more expensive than building a new facility because the parts and equipment of the mothballed facility were mostly outdated and its turbine generators have low output efficiencies compared to the newer models. As such, although the plant has been converted to run using another fuel, it could still yield low output efficiencies since the same generators would be used, an Inquirer source said.

The BNPP was built during the Marcos era by Westinghouse Electric at a cost of $2.2 billion. It was mothballed in 1986 due to safety concerns, even before it could begin operations. The structure is now dilapidated and outdated.

Over the past years, however, a number of foreign companies have expressed interest to rehabilitate the BNPP. Previous estimates put the cost of the rehabilitation at $1 billion.