Therma Visayas power plant in Cebu now operational
By Lenie Lectura – April 17, 2019
from Business Mirror
THERMA Visayas Inc. (TVI), a subsidiary of AboitizPower, said on Tuesday its power plant in Cebu has started delivering energy.
TVI’s first 170-megawatt baseload unit in Toledo City, Cebu, is now online. The second 170-MW unit is currently expected to come online by May 2019.
“We are happy to have brought Therma Visayas online just in time to support the government’s call for more reliable energy supply as we head toward the midterm elections,” said Danel C. Aboitiz, president and COO of AboitizPower’s Coal Business Unit.
“By having a reliable baseload plant on the island of Cebu, the residents and investors on the island will enjoy a number of economic and strategic benefits that include increased energy security, more competitive prices and local employment,” he added.
The plant will deliver power to Visayan Electric Co. Inc. (Veco) and electric cooperatives, as well as to open access customers in Luzon and the Visayas. Customers with energy-supply contracts enjoy stable prices in the long term and are essentially protected from the volatility of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
The Toledo baseload power plant is using the latest circulating fluidized-bed technology (CFB) and best available control technology (BACT) to minimize emissions to world-class levels. It is the second plant in the Philippines to build a “coal dome” to safely store its coal fuel and prevent fugitive dust outside the facility.
The plant, which started construction in 2015, is a joint venture between AboitizPower and Vivant Corp.
Apart from TVI, the first unit of GNPower Dinginin baseload power plant with 668-MW gross capacity is also expected to go online later this year, while the second unit, which also has a gross capacity of 668 MW, is currently targeted for commercial operations in 2020.
Once operational, these facilities will boost AboitizPower’s capacity and help address the country’s rapidly increasing demand for reliable and cost-efficient power.
