Operator Pearl Energy unveils strategic masterplan for Mauban-based coal plants

Since the start of the millennium, the 460-megawatt (MW) coalfired Quezon Power Plant in the municipality of Mauban has been reinforcing the Philippines’ Luzon electricity grid under a power supply agreement with private distribution utility firm Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

As the years progressed and the economy grew, a greater demand for electricity gave rise to a second coalfired unit in the municipality: the San Buenaventura Power Plant.

Asian Power recently toured the facilities and delved into the plant’s contribution to the Philippines’ energy landscape.

The plant tour

Both the Quezon and San Buenaventura power plants are operated by Pearl Energy Philippines Operating Inc. (PEPOI). The first coal-fired unit, owned by Thailand’s EGCO Group subsidiary Quezon Power (Philippines), Limited Co., is the first baseload IPP in Southeast Asia to sell electricity to a non-government utility.

Walter Laptew, facilities manager at PEPOI, said the Quezon Plant uses a steam turbine from General Electric and its boiler is a Foster Wheeler. Building it back in 2000 required around $750m whilst rolling out the transmission line cost another $68m.

In 2019, the second unit in Mauban started operations to answer to the bigger demand for electricity, PEPOI Plant Manager Roel Feliciano said. Meralco’s power generation unit, Meralco PowerGen, holds a 51% stake in the 455-MW San Buenaventura Power Plant, whilst the EGCO subsidiary New Growth BV owns the remaining 49% stake.

Costing around $1b, the second unit is the first supercritical coal-fired power plant in the Philippines, using a “high efficiency, low emissions” coal technology through higher temperatures and pressures.

“After our project, two power plants followed us. They are now supercritical,” Feliciano said.

Overcoming challenges

Building the plants did proceed without challenges. The construction of the Quezon Power plant was met with opposition from a non-governmental group.

“However, we were fortunate that the local government unit was in favour of the plan. As time went on, we were accepted by the community,” Laptew told Asian Power The main challenge in building the San Buenaventura unit was the limited area for construction, he said.

Laptew said they had to relocate several QPL support facilities to free up space for the construction of the second unit.

Solid maintenance programme

According to Feliciano, said one of the challenges in maintaining the power plants is ensuring compliance with the environmental requirements set by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Pearl Energy has parameters to measure its compliance with environmental standards. For example, they use an antiemission device called the electrostatic precipitator which reduces the opacity of the smoke emitted by the plants. Through this, the smoke released is not visible, he said.

“We keep on upgrading that. If the original equipment manufacturer has a new technology for that, we install it so that we make sure that we are compliant with the environmental requirements,” Feliciano noted.

It also maximise the scheduled annual outages within 25 to 30 days to check the condition of the plant. Feliciano added that every three to five years, they need a major outage spanning 45 days to carry out significant changes and overhauling of equipment like the turbine.

Meanwhile, Laptew highlighted the importance of their engineers in ensuring the plants remain in good condition.

“For reliability and maintaining the plant, it’s a skill set that requires a good maintenance program, and a good maintenance team. We have a very solid group of professionals who enables us to reliably and as cheaply as possible produce power that’s needed by the public,” he said.

“People are one of our major assets,” Feliciano added.

Feliciano stated that they provide continuous training to their engineers by sending them overseas or attending seminars led by organisations like the Philippine Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Philippine Coal Plant Users’ Group to keep up with the developments in the sector.

Government moratorium

It is a challenge to shift towards cleaner electricity sources, Feliciano said.

In October 2020, the Philippine government imposed a moratorium against the construction of new coal-fired power plants. The country also plans to increase the share of renewable energy (RE) in the generation mix to 30% by 2030 and 50% by 2040%.

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