A1E seeks DOE certification for planned coal power plant

By Lenie Lectura – September 10, 2024
from Business Mirror

Atimonan One Energy Inc. (A1E), a wholly owned subsidiary of Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen), will ask the Department of Energy (DOE) to validate that the planned 1,200-megawatt (MW) coal power plant is not covered by the coal moratorium policy.

The power project faced construction delays due to a 2019 Supreme Court ruling that all power supply deals entered on or after June 30, 2015 must undergo competitive selection process (CSP). Later, A1E considered converting the coal power project to natural gas-fired combined cycle gas turbine power plant. It filed the necessary permit applications, including environmental clearance to convert its coal project to gas but there was no final decision yet on the planned conversion.

MGen President Emmanuel Rubio said the company plans to ask the DOE to certify that the coal power project was approved even before the moratorium on new coal power projects was issued in December 2020.

“Initially, Atimonan was coal and we tried to repurpose it as gas, right? But it’s in the committed list so it’s outside of the moratorium. We have the ECC [environmental compliance certificate] for 1,200 (MW) ultra-supercritical coal. So, we’re trying to get a DOE certification that is really outside the moratorium to start the discussions on SIS (system impact study), looking for an engineering study. That’s where we are,” Rubio said.

MGen is the power generation arm of power distribution firm Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

Meralco Chairman Manuel Pangilinan said A1E is licensed, permitted and authorized to put up an ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plant in Atimonan, Quezon.

“We don’t know yet whether we stay with coal or switch it to natural gas. The inclination is to stay with coal. Because if it’s gas, we must put up the terminal, the re-gas facility. And we probably should not stay at 1,200 megawatts, right? Probably increase it. And I don’t know whether that’s the right place to put up a gas complex.”

Recently, there had been calls for more baseload capacity, including coal, to supply the power-hungry Luzon grid.

The DOE, for its part, has clarified the scope of its coal moratorium policy. The agency said the policy does not cover the following:

• existing and operational coal-fired power generation facilities;
• any coal-fired power projects considered committed power projects;
• existing power plant complexes that already have firm expansion plans and existing land site provisions;
• indicative power projects with substantial accomplishments, particularly with signed and notarized land acquisition or lease agreements for the projects, and with approved permits or resolutions from local government units and the Regional Development Council where the power plants will be located.

The DOE noted that these parameters were explicitly provided under Item 2 of the Coal Moratorium Policy.

“Following a thorough review and verification by the Power Bureau, the DOE issues at the request of a project proponent a certification that a project is not covered by the moratorium,” the agency said.

“Several proponents of coal-fired power projects have requested the DOE’s confirmation on noncoverage and these were ministerially issued after verification.”