Dinginin plant’s operation boosts election power supply
By Myrna M. Velasco – December 31, 2021, 3:14 PM
from Manila Bulletin
The recent approval granted by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on the license for the commercial operations of the 724.965-megawatt GNPower Dinginin (GNPD) thermal generating plant will put power supply on a safer zone during the May 2022 elections as well as for the demand peak on the summer months.
Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Chairperson Agnes T. Devanadera said “with the issuance of COC (certificate of compliance) to GNPD, it can now commercially operate and inject power to the Luzon grid that will provide the much-needed additional power supply to meet the increasing demand for power this holiday season and up to the election period.”
The COC serves as a license that a power plant developer will need to secure from the ERC before it could align its electric generating facility to full commercial operations.
The approved COC will be valid for five years, and the ERC qualified that this “may be revoked or suspended…should the NGCP determine that the continued injection of the 668-MW by GNPD shall imperil the safety and security of the grid.”
The ERC emphasized that the COC granted is just for unit 1 of the GNPower Dinginin facility; while its unit 2 (of at least 668-MW capacity), will be due on commercial stream latter part this year to early next year after undertaking warranted commissioning and testing processes.
As designed, the power plant has two generating units of 668-MW net capacity, and it is equipped with supercritical boiler, one of the latest technologies in coal-fired power generation. Project-sponsor firm GNPower Dinginin Ltd. Co. is a joint venture of Aboitiz Power Corporation and ACEN Corporation of the Ayala group.
The ERC noted the facility is currently wheeling its capacity to Luzon grid through an interim connection in the Mariveles substation, with it specifying that “the final connection of the generation assets will be connected to the New Mariveles (Alas-asin) 500-kilovolt switching station of NGCP.”
The Dinginin plant had been expected to be on-line as early as September 2021, but some intervening factors — such as the preventive maintenance shutdown of the Malampay gas field last October and the softening of power demand — were considered on the commercial operation of the Dinginin plant.
The ERC conveyed that consultations were done with the Department of Energy (DOE) and system operator NGCP on moving the internal deadline set for Unit 1 of the Dinginin plant’s operations, and that had been anchored on “the current demand and supply situation, and in order to support the grid during the Malampaya outage.”
According to Devanadera, “the grant of COC to GNPower Dingin will augment the country’s generation capacity and a proactive effort by the Commission, particularly in cases where power demand outweighs supply.”
The chief industry regulator stressed “the ERC sees to it that COC applications are approved as soon as all legal, technical and financial requirements have been satisfied in order to ensure that supply matches the demand and to promote sustainable power supply.”
