MGen considering conversion of planned coal-fired power plants

By Jed Macapagal – December 2, 2024
from Malaya Business Insight

MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) remains hopeful some sites previously intended to be developed for coal-fired power plants could be utilized instead to pursue natural-gas fired power plants.

Yari Miralao, MGEN Gas Energy Holdings Inc. (MNatural Gas) president and chief executive officer, told reporters in a briefing in Singapore last week the company is considering the transformation of sites in La Union and in Subic, Zambales.

MNatural Gas is a subsidiary of Meralco Power Gen Corp. (MGen) which, in turn, is the power generation arm of Meralco.

MGen, alongside partner firms, earlier had planned coal-fired power projects through Global Luzon Energy Development Corp. (GLEDC) with a capacity of 670 megawatts (MW) in La Union and through Redondo Peninsula (RP) Energy for a 600 MW project in Subic.

“Both are subject to the coal moratorium and can no longer be coal plants… There are running costs. RP Energy is a lease and GLEDC was purchased so there are real property taxes and so on and so forth. So, I think the natural progression on these things is to convert these into gas plants,” Miralao said.

Power interconnection is also available in the areas, he added.

Miralao said to pursue such plans, the company will have to secure a new environmental compliance certificate as well as conduct a technical scoping and baseline study which could all be done “within a year and a half at a reasonable cost.” He said MGen is sitting on two stranded assets that are incurring running costs, that are designed as coal plants.