Meralco changing configuration of 600-MW Subic power project

The power generation investment arm of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) is changing the design of its Redondo Peninsula Energy (RPE) coal-fired power project into a single configuration of 600 megawatts (MW) instead of having two units at 300MW capacity each.

This is being resorted to by Meralco PowerGen after the project’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co. Ltd. of South Korea opted out from their original deal.

“We’re opening the possibility of going through a bigger size – it used to be 2x300MW. The reason for that was, we’re waiting for the NGCP (National Grid Corporation of the Philippines) substation. But now that it’s there, we don’t need to do a 2X300MW, so either we do 455 megawatts which is the same size as SBPL (San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co. project) or do a one-by-600MW instead,” Meralco PowerGen President and Chief Executive Officer Rogelio L. Singson told reporters in a press conference.

The equipment utilization will also shift from previously sub-critical circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler to an ultra-super critical (USC) technology.

On the EPC contract, the company is similarly contemplating on undertaking a new round of bid process – although at this point, Singson noted that their option is to give leeway first to the original South Korean contractor to make an offer.

“We’re still asking if the Koreans are interested,” he stressed; adding that in their contract cost submission under the plant’s original design, the price difference had been immense.

“They have submitted and we felt the price will not make it (power plant project) viable… I don’t have the exact numbers, but it (cost difference) is substantial,” Singson qualified.

The original EPC contract was negotiated as early as 2014, but the power project never moved to construction phase because of the delayed approval of its power supply agreement (PSA) with parent utility firm Meralco.

Until now, that power supply deal is pending with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) with no certainty yet on when the go-signal will be rendered.

While still at transitional phase of the project’s development, Meralco PowerGen noted that it has been continuing “to do some remedial works at the site, so we don’t cause any environmental degradation.”

Aside from the proposed RP Energy facility, the power firm is also advancing its US$3.0-billion Atimonan One Energy (A1E) project that will bestow capacity addition of 1,200MW for Luzon grid.