AboitizPower spending P900 M for rehab of Cebu diesel plants

Aboitiz Power Corp. has set a budget of nearly P900 million to rehabilitate the diesel units of the Naga Power Plant Complex (NPPC) in Cebu and provide ancillary services to the Visayas grid next year.

NPPC has a 43.8-MW Cebu diesel power plant composed of six 7.3-MW bunker oil power units.

All six units are targeted to start operating within the first half of next year, said Emmanuel Rubio, chief operating officer of Aboitiz Power.

“We expect two units to be operational, at the latest, February and the rest by second half of 2019,” he said.

The output of the diesel units will serve as ancillary services (AS) to the Visayas power grid.

Expanding the capacity of NPPC beyond its diesel plants’ output is still being studied since the acquired facility is focused on providing ancilliary services, Rubio said.

Moreover, AboitizPower is completing a 340-MW coal-fired power plant in Toledo City under Therma Visayas Inc. for the baseload requirements of the region.

“We’re checking because I want to make sure that we service the ancillary service requirements that we have…I am commissioning a 300 MW plant down the road from TVI. So I want to make sure this (Naga) serves a different purpose than the one in Toledo,” Rubio said.

Rubio earlier said they would offer NPPC’s output to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) as ancilliary services to ensure the stability and reliability of the Visayas grid.

The Aboitiz group took over NPPC in July after state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) turned NPPC over to AboitizPower unit Therma Power Visayas Inc. (TPVI) earlier this year.

Rubio said the company has completed audits on environmental and safety aspects of the plants and commenced structural repairs.

Located in Colon, Naga City, the power facility consists of two thermal power plants and one diesel-fired power plant that use a combination of coal, bunker oil and diesel as fuel.

Apart from the diesel plant component, NPPC also consists of the 52.5-MW Cebu 1 and 56.8-MW Cebu 2 coal-fired thermal power plants.