The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The Lopez group’s First Gen Corp. (First Gen) will start commercial operation of the 100-megawatt (MW) natural gas-fired power plant San Gabriel Avion in Batangas City.
Prime Meridian Powergen Corp. (PMPC), a wholly-owned subsidiary, received last September 7 the certificate of compliance (COC) from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the company said in a report to the bourse.
The Avion plant located in Barangay Bolbok, Batangas City and within the First Gen Clean Energy Complex is expected to start commercial operation depending on the processing of its application with the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC) which operates the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
The Avion plant has been commissioned since early this year and has been supplying electricity during peak hours.
First Gen added Unit 20 of 1,000 MW Santa Rita Combined Cycle Power Plant is under repair due to a damaged main transformer and will return to operation by October.
Meanwhile, three power plants of First Gen were isolated from the Luzon Grid last September 6 due to transmission line tripping.
The Department of Energy (DOE) said Line 1 and Line 2 of the Makban-Batangas 230 kilovolts (kV) transmission line tripped, resulting in the isolation of three large power plants with a total capacity of 1,030 MW.
These generating units were San Lorenzo (2×255 MW), Avion (100 MW) and San Gabriel (420 MW).
RIZA LOZADA