Consunji-owned power firm to start 600-MW expansion

The director of the Consunji-owned Sem-Calaca Power Corp. has said the company will begin to expand its 600-megawatt (MW) Calaca coal-fired power plant this year, bringing its total capacity to 1,200 MW. In an interview with reporters on Friday, Sem-Calaca director Nestor Davidas said the target is to expand the plant’s capacity by another 600 MW. He said the first phase will involve the construction of two units of a 150-MW circulating fluidized bed power plant. Established by Semirara Mining Corp., a subsidiary of DMCI Holdings Inc., Sem-Calaca runs the Calaca coal facility. Davidas did not, however, disclose the amount the company will spend to construct the coal facility. An industry rule-of-thumb, however, shows that a coal-fired power plant costs around $2 million to $2.5 million per MW to construct. Earlier, Davidas said he and his colleagues are “studying the power demand and supply situation in Luzon" to come up with an investment decision for the planned expansion. Two 300-MW generating units comprise the Calaca facility, which is primarily designed to run as a base-load plant for utilizing local coal from Semirara. In July 2009, DMCI Holdings bought the Calaca plant from the government with a bid price of $361.7 million. To rehabilitate the Calaca plant and increase its capacity by an additional 130 megawatts, DMCI spent around $60 million to rehabilitate the Calaca plant. Davidas said his group is working on an application to turn the site into an ecozone that “will entice investors with high electricity requirements sourced from the Calaca plant to locate in Balayan and Calaca, Batangas." - PE/KBK, GMA News