PEAKPOWER Soccsargen Inc., a subsidiary of A Brown Co. Inc. (ABCI), started ground works on Thursday for its 20.9-megawatt (MW) bunker-fired power plant in South Cotabato.
Peakpower President Roel Castro said the facility will be fully operational by the second half of 2014. “This is just one of many projects designed to address the lack of power in the Mindanao grid for the next two to three years, and to allow the cooperatives to meet the needs for peaking power,” he said, adding that it is part of ABCI’s aim to address the incessant power outages caused by the shortfall in peaking energy in Mindanao.
The security and reliability of power supply would yield more competitive rates and help bring electricity costs down, thus driving down the cost of doing business in the area, added the official.
Peakpower is engaged in the development, construction, operation and maintenance of bunker-fired power plants and systems.
Wärtsilä Finland Oy, a manufacturer of diesel engines with a total of 2 gigawatt-hours of installed capacity in the Philippines, will be supplying the engines. Power, Manufacturing and Marine Works Inc. (PMM Works) is the power generation, engineering, installment and construction contractor for the project, while Ferrowelds Construction is the switchyard contractor.
Peakpower will be supplying electricity to the South Cotabato II Electric Cooperative (Socoteco II).
“We are here for the long term. This is the first project we have started in this city but we are interested in doing other kinds of projects in any way we can be of assistance. We’re interested in problems: not creating or expanding them but in solving them with the help and assistance of the community, in a transparent manner,” ABCI Chairman Walter Brown said.
Socoteco II General Manager Rodolfo Ocat said Peakpower will construct the power plant on a build-operate-transfer scheme. “We agreed that after 15 years, the power plant will be transferred to the cooperative,” he said.
Aside from Peakpower, ABCI’s foray into the energy industry includes Palm Concepcion Power Corp.’s 270-MW coal-fired power plant project in Concepcion Iloilo and Hydrolink Projects Corp.’s 25-MW hydroelectric project in Surigao that recently signed a service contract with the Department of Energy.
