First Gen looks forward to availability of green fuels

Lopez-led First Gen Corp. could be partnering anew with Japan’s Tokyo Gas Co. Ltd. in the future for green fuels like hydrogen once the technology develops and becomes commercially available.

“Tokyo Gas have been doing a lot of studies on hydrogen. They call it emethane, and I think they want to bring the technology here as well,” First Gen chairman and CEO Federico Lopez said.

“So, that’s the beauty that eventually, you know, as that technology becomes viable, it can even be used to repower our natural gas plants,” he said.

Lopez said First Gen’s natural gas fired power plants are future-ready for hydrogen blending capability.

“In fact, today, many of the plants that we’re putting in, the natural gas fired power plants, are capable of firing on blended with hydrogen if it will were available today. They’re (the plants) capable of that,” he said.

Lopez said there is a need to look toward decommissioning fossil fuelpowered plants as more clean energy and storage facilities are added into the grids over time.

“First the coal plants, and then ultimately the oil and natural gas plants. For the latter they can either be repowered with green fuels like hydrogen as they become feasible in the coming decade or outright decommissioned before 2050, similar to the process done for the coal plants earlier,” he said.

First Gen’s gas-fired power plants include the 1,000-megawatt (MW) Santa Rita power plant, the 500-MW San Lorenzo power plant, the 414-MW San Gabriel power plant and the 97-MW Avion power plant.

First Gen and Tokyo Gas partnered in 2018 to develop a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal project in Batangas.

Tokyo Gas, a leading LNG player and one of the largest purchasers of LNG in the world, has a 20-percent stake in the LNG project, whose construction is now nearing completion.

The LNG terminal is scheduled for commissioning next month, with commercial operation set in June, in line with the arrival of LNG supply to fuel First Gen’s existing gas-fired power plants.

“On LNG, I guess we’re still targeted to finish the terminal by March. And then the vessel, the FSRU (floating storage regasification unit), to be coming in toward June or July. So, that’s still the target,” Lopez said.

First Gen is a clean and renewable energy company whose power plants run either on renewable energy sources, such as hydro, geothermal, solar, and wind, or on natural gas, considered the cleanest fossil fuel.

These plants have a total installed capacity of 3,492 MW.

The Department of Energy (DOE) considers LNG as an important source for fuel diversification, as it is aligned with the goal of transitioning to a low carbon future and helps stabilize power supply from variable renewable energy.

Natural gas is seen supporting the intermittent renewable sources due to its ability to provide flexible capacity.

The DOE said this flexibility allows LNG plants to serve not only peaking requirements to support renewables and ancillary power, but can likewise provide mid-merit and base load requirements.