SBPL expected to bring in over P1B to Meralco in 2020
By Lenie Lectura -March 2, 2020
from Business Mirror
SAN Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co. (SBPL), a joint venture between the affiliates of Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen) and Thailand’s EGCO Group, is expected to contribute over a billion pesos to Meralco this year.
The operation of SBPL’s 455-megawatt (MW) supercritical coal-fired plant in Mauban, Quezon has provided P300 million of contribution to Meralco’s core net income at end-2019.
When asked if SBPL will be able to post the same amount every quarter this year, MGen president Rogelio Singson replied, “Possibly, that’s expected because it’s just one quarter…we expect it.”
The plant began commercial operations on September 26, 2019. It has since delivered 852M gigawatt-hours (GWh) of energy to Meralco at an average plant availability of over 87 percent as at December 31, 2019. This has eased supply within the franchise area as around 630-megawatt (MW) of plant capacities went into maintenance shutdown for almost 10 days in the last quarter of 2019.
“We’ve had some hiccups early January but we were able to address immediately. We have technicians, experts in boiler, boiler tuning that have been addressed. We hope the solution is nothing major but boiler tuning.
“We have contributed to the bottom line of Meralco of about P300 million, completed the project a little below budget and on schedule. We are happy with the outcome of the project and our partners are also happy with the project,” said Singson.
The distribution utility firm’s president, Ray C. Espinosa, acknowledged the good performance of the power plant. “We are extremely happy,” he commented.
The country’s most advanced operational coal plant utilizes a high-efficiency, low-emissions (HELE) coal technology.
Singson explained that this technology could reduce carbon dioxide emissions and improve the efficiency of the power plant by producing more amount of energy with less coal.
“Significant advances in coal-fired power plant technology demonstrate that we do not have to choose between affordable and reliable electricity or a cleaner environment,” he said. “As a pioneer of this technology, SBPL is setting the bar higher in operating coal plants in the Philippines,” he added.
