No expansion plan for Sual Power Plant
THE 1,200 megawatt Sual Coal-fired Power Plant operated by Team Enegy in Pangascasan, Sual has no plan to expand although another 900 megawatts power plan will soon rise in Sual town to be put up by the Trans Asia Oil Energy Development Corporation.
“There’s a room for every player and it is like, the more the merrier.” said Gregory Romualdez, external affairs officer of Team Energy, during the KBP Forum last week.
He, however, pointed out that the new power plant, also coal-fired, to be put up by Trans Asia in Barangay Baquioen, Sual, is a merchant plant unlike the 1,200-megawatt Sual Coal-fired Power Plant which is one of the Independent Power Plants (IPPs) set up during the administration of then President Fidel Ramos.
The power outputs of an IPP are contracted by the government (National Power Corporation) passing through the Luzon Grid and distributed passing through the transmission lines of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
A merchant power plant, he said, supplies the power needs of electric cooperatives and electric corporations and therefore serves another clientele.
“We don’t see them as competitor because the energy supply of the country, especially the Luzon grid, is increasing yearly by five percent.”
He said the 1,200 megawatt coal-fired power plant comprising of 10 percent of the power requirements for Luzon, is composed of two units of 600 megawatts each. Unit 1 is now operated full load while Unit II is undergoing regular maintenance outage up to next year.
Though Sual Power Plant is not expanding, Romualdez however, said the 750-megawatt Pagbilao Coal-fired Power Plant in Quezon, also operated by Team Energy, is building a third generating unit capable of producing additional 400 megawatts.
He clarified that the Sual Coal-fired Power Plant has no quarrel with the Local Government of Sual but it cannot grant the request of Sual Mayor Roberto Arcinue that electric consumers in his town be given discounted rate on power costs and enjoy preferential treatment of having uninterrupted service if Luzon is gripped by massive power outage.
This is because, he said, such demands for preferential treatment are not provided for in their contract.
The power plant pays P30 million in local business taxes yearly in addition to the P77 million Real Property Tax (RPT) it pays yearly which is divided by Barangay Pangascasan P25 percent; Municipality if Sual, 35 percent; and Pangasinan provincial government, 30 percent. (Leonardo Micua/Tita Roces)
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