The Sea, Sky, and TSI
At five o’clock in the morning every day, the engineers aren’t the only ones up and about inside the power plant. An unlikely bunch kept them company amid the impressive steel and concrete structures. You would have to pay close attention to notice them because despite being frequent visitors, these winged creatures were often overlooked. The visitors weren’t angels — they were bi r ds.
Dawn crawls over the Davao Gulf, onto the jetty that juts out the border of Davao City and Davao del Sur, and the sun rises behind the iconic coal dome. Birds leave their roosts on ladder rungs and electrical lines to forage for a morsel among the pockets of foliage inside the 75-hectare compound of the 300-megawatt Davao Baseload Power Plant oper at ed by AboitizPower subsidiary Therma South, Inc.
Flocks of birds, lush greenery, sea, and springs teeming with life — this is not the usual scenery that is associated with a coal-fired power plant. But undoubtedly, it is the scenery that we should see more often.
Davao-based birder Peter Simpson spotted and identified 45 different species inside the plant after three birdwatching sessions last June 27, 2018, September 24, 2018, and June 18, 2019. He believes that with a few more sessions, more species may be discovered.
“TSI is a haven for birds because of the great range of habitats; open sea, the beach, grassland, marshland, and freshwater pools. Even the man-made structures offer an opportunity to the birds as evidenced by house swifts nesting on the sides of the coal dome,” Simpson shar ed.
AboitizPower has always strived to provide reliable and reasonably-priced power, making sure that all its business units are operated responsibly. Therma South, Inc. or TSI, under its Coal Business Unit, is a prime example