Siemens to submit EPC bid for First Gen’s 2 new power projects
By Myrna M. Velasco – July 2, 2019, 10:00 PM
from Manila Bulletin
Industrial giant Siemens A.G. of Germany indicated that it will submit a tender for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract that project developer First Gen Corporation has been soliciting for its two new power projects.
The German firm was among those being invited by First Gen to submit a bid for the targeted EPC deal for the company’s 600-megawatt Santa Maria and 600MW Saint Joseph gas-fired power facilities.
“Siemens intends to submit a bid,” Siemens Regional Chief Executive Officer Dr Armin Bruck said, looking forward to a prospective fourth power plant development that it will be undertaking with the Lopez group.
Siemens had been the gas turbine supplier and EPC contractor in the last 414MW San Gabriel gas-fired power facility of the Lopez firm that reached commercial operations in 2016.
The company was also instrumental in the construction, supply of equipment and continually manning the operations of the first two gas-fired plants of First Gen – namely the 1,000MW Santa Rita and 500MW San Lorenzo power stations.
“Siemens had successfully built and now managing and operating the 414MW San Gabriel combined cycle power plant, which was the most efficient gas-fired power plant in Southeast Asia when it was commissioned in March 2016,” Bruck emphasized. The plant has a rated efficiency of more than 60-percent.
In addition, the German firm is the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) contractor of the Santa Rita and San Lorenzo plants – a deal stretching over two decades that it cemented with the Lopez firm at the development phase of the two gas-fired power assets.
“With this track record of being the O&M company of First Gen’s fleet in its Clean Energy complex in Batangas, we are confident that we can help First Gen to achieve similar good results with their planned two gas-fired power projects,” Bruck stressed.
The German firm executive further noted “we see huge potential in the infrastructure business in the Philippines – especially in the energy sector where Siemens has made major contribution in recent years.”
On a greenfield development sphere, the two new power projects of First Gen will command investment totaling US$1.2 billion – that is based on prevailing rule-of-thumb development cost for combined cycle power plants.
But as emphasized by First Gen EVP and Chief Commercial Officer Jon Russell, the final extent of capital outlay will be largely determined by the bids that will be submitted by prospective EPC contractors.
The planned Santa Maria and Saint Joseph gas-fired power projects are intended to be equipped with HL Class gas turbines – given the scale of their installed capacities; and the facilities are targeted to reach commercial operations in 2023 to 2024 parallel to the completion of the 5.0 million tons per annum (mtpa) LNG import facility of First Gen.
