Philippines' TeaM Energy shortlists contractors for coal-fired plant expansion

TeaM Energy now has six firms as prospective boiler supplier; and another six for the turbine  the 400-megawatt expansion of the Pagbilao coal-fired plant.

This was disclosed by company president and CEO Federico E. Puno.

TeaM Energy, the operator of the existing 735-MW Pagbilao facility, will be partnering with the Aboitiz group on the capacity expansion of the pulverized coal-fed power facility.

The shortlisted firms include Mitsubishi Heavy Industries which was also the original equipment manufacturer in the first two units of the Pagbilao facility. The others are Hyundai Heavy Industries, European firms Alstom and Foster Wheeler AG, American firm Black & Veatch and Japanese firm Toshiba Corporation.

Being the OEM for the first two units, Puno has indicated that they are open to negotiating with Mitsubishi on the expansion’s turnkey contract “if they will give us a good price.”

The technology deployment for the third Pagbilao unit will follow the first two because it will be a more cost effective way of implementing the project.

The capital outlay for the facility’s expansion has been placed at $600 million to $700 million.

Puno added that they are still finalizing the specifications of the proposed unit, including a prospective lower calorific value of coal that will be utilized in running the facility.

He stressed that the perceived advantage in the design of the third unit will be its ability to burn coal with lower calorific value of 4,200 k/cal as compared to 6,000 k/cal in the initial units.

The expanded capacity of the Pagbilao plant is targeted on-line by 2015, the period when supply shoring up will be needed again in Luzon. This will be after the 2013 commercial operation of the 600-megawatt plant of GN Power.

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