Construction of the 340-megawatt (MW) coal plant by the Aboitiz-led Therma Visayas, Inc. (TVI) in Toledo City is on track and will be completed by the end of 2018.
Sebastian R. Lacson, chief operating officer of Aboitiz Power Corp. coal group, said the new facility will provide an additional 300 to 318 MW for Cebu.
“I’m happy to report that wala jud siyay hiccups maski unsa. Everything is going as planned. We haven’t encountered any problems — regulatory, construction or environmentally,” Lacson said at the sidelines of the inauguration of a similar project in Davao City, the 300-MW Therma South, Inc. (TSI) coal plant.
Lacson said the technologies used in TSI will also be used in the TVI project, which costs between P36 and P38 billion.
The plant will have two generating units with a rated capacity of 170MW each. It will house the second coal dome in the Philippines, the first being in TSI.
The coal dome, which is a storage facility for coal, ensures safety, security of the fuel and welfare of the environment.
“It’s expensive but we just decided that it was worth it because the coal dome is good for dust mitigation. So it’s very ideal for the community,” Lacson said.
The plant will also utilize other technologies to mitigate dust dispersal and reduce pollution, including the circulating fluidized bed (CFB) technology and a continuous emissions monitoring system (CEMS).
TVI is a joint venture project between the Aboitiz Power Corporation (80 percent) and Vivant Integrated Generation Corp.
To reduce carbon emissions from the newly inaugurated TSI plant in Davao, AboitizPower partnered with the Matigsalug IP community in Mindanao to establish a carbon sink program.
The program is designed to not only reduce emissions, but also rehabilitate and revive the forest area, and serve as livelihood for the community.
A similar carbon sink program is also being looked into for TVI, which will reduce carbon emissions by some 20 percent.
AboitizPower has over 44 generation facilities and a net capacity of over 2,400 MW nationwide, in terms of both renewables and non-renewables.
By 2018, a rated capacity of over 1000 MW will be added to existing capacity, through TVI (340MW), Pagbilao (420MW) and RP Energy (300-600MW).