Alsons to decide on EPC contractor for coal-fired power plant by April

ALSONS Consolidated Resources, Inc. (ACR) targets to select the company to handle the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) component of its 105-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Zamboanga City by April.

“We will be making our final selection by April next year. Shortly thereafter is the notice to proceed, [in] May or June,” Joseph C. Nocos, vice-president for business development at ACR’s power group, told reporters on Thursday.

Mr. Nocos said four groups are vying to be the EPC contractor of the P17-billion power plant under subsidiary San Ramon Power, Inc. These are Dongfang Electric International Corp.; Jurong Engineering Ltd.; Northeast No. 1 Electric Power Construction Co., Ltd. (NEPC 1); and Shandong Electric Power Construction Co.

ACR described Dongfang as based in Chengdu, China, while NEPC 1 is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Energy Engineering Group, and Shandong is a unit of Power Construction Corporation of China. Jurong is based in Singapore.

The project will be financed through a loan being arranged by Land Bank of the Philippines, Mr. Nocos said. The loan proceeds at around P11.9 billion will account for 70% of the project cost.

“We hope to capture some of the load growth of some of the electric cooperatives of Mindanao,” he said.

Of the plant’s capacity, 85 MW had already been contracted to Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative. The project is expected to start commercial operation by January 2022.

“With the expected completion of the Mindanao-Visayas interconnection project, we can expand our market to some of the utilities in the Visayas,” Mr. Nocos said. Aside from the Zamboanga City power plant, Alsons is also developing the P4.25-billion 15.1-MW Siguil hydropower plant at the Siguil River basin in Maasin, Sarangani. It is expected to start commercial operations in 2021. It will provide power to Sarangani, General Santos City and municipalities of South Cotabato.

The group runs the Southern Philippines Power Corp. in Alabel, Sarangani and Western Mindanao Power Corp. in Zamboanga City.

It also operates the 103-MW Mapalad Power Corp. diesel plant in Iligan City and the first 105-MW section of the 210MW Sarangani Energy Corp. baseload coal-fired power plant in Maasim, Sarangani province.

The Sarangani plant’s second 105-MW section is expected to begin commercial operations in the first quarter of 2019.