Wärtsilä eyes opportunities in Philippines

WÄRTSILÄ Philippines, Inc. is ready to take advantage of opportunities in the Philippines once the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry takes off. This as the government moves closer to firming up plans on how it will choose the developer of an integrated import terminal for the fuel.

“LNG is really a challenging topic but we are active already, for example in Indonesia. We know that sooner or later LNG will come here and of course we try to position ourselves,” said Ville Rimali, Wärtsilä business development manager for Southeast Asia and Australia, in an interview.

Wärtsilä is an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) provider for power plant developers. In the Philippines, the local unit of the Finnish company has more than 1,600 megawatts (MW) of installed power capacity. It employs more than a hundred people in its main office in Laguna and contract management sites in Masbate and in Mindanao.

Mr. Rimali said what differentiates Wärtsilä from other EPC contractors is that it builds LNGrun power plants that are flexible and could be switched on or off in minutes. He said these systems are what the Philippines needs.

“Our role is really in the flexibility portion and we basically can provide flexible gas- or LNG-based power plants and energy storage,” he said.

Mr. Rimali’s business optimism comes as the Department of Energy (DoE) once again decided to tweak its energy mix policy, which guides power developers on what plants to put up to respond to the requirements of the system.

Earlier this month, Mario C. Marasigan, director of the DoE’s electric power industry management bureau, said the agency was modifying its policy to reflect the result of its latest assessment, which shows baseload plants account for 55-56% and not 70% as earlier set.

At present, the DoE’s energy mix calls for 70% baseload or power plants that remain online for an extended period, 30% midmerit or those that can easily be switched on and off, and 10% peaking, which are mostly diesel-fired power plants.

Mr. Rimali said in the Philippines’ existing system “flexibility is the missing portion.”

“So that’s why you should build only renewable and flexible generation [plants] because all the rest you have already,” he said.

Asked whether Wärtsilä is interested in participating in the DoE’s search for partners in the development of a floating integrated LNG facility, he said: “We provide in the smaller scale not on that scale that is discussed in the Batangas.”

Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC), an agency attached to the DoE, previously said it was looking at a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) in Batangas province.

“That’s a little big, too large [a] project for us. There is a Japanese contractors who may be better to do that kind. Actually you can build also smaller scale and make it economic,” he said.

He said Wärtsilä’s small-scale floating facility “in the power plant scale” has a capacity of 50 MW to 300 MW.

PNOC is planning to partner with a developer that can serve the country’s entire LNG users plus future consumers such as those in the transportation sector. Initially, the LNG hub is planned to serve the five gas-fired power plants in Batangas with a combined capacity of 3,211 MW.