Pagbilao Power Plant, Pagbilao, Quezon, Philippines
Power, Aug 2004 by Flake, Paul M, Corp, Mirant PhilippinesE-mail Print Link This 700-MW coal-fired station isn't new, but POWER is honoring it as a Top Plant of 2004. Why? Twelve years ago, Pagbilao took the arrows by pioneering the build-own-transfer (BOT) approach to power project development in the Philippines. Since the plant was commissioned in 1996, it has run more reliably and cleanly every year and thus played a major role in raising the standard of living for Filipino citizens.
Owner/operator: Mirant Philippines Corp.
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To Avoid Atlanta-based Mirant Corp. was among the first independent power producers to respond to the Philippines' appeal for investment in its electricity sector in the late 1980s. As a result, the company now has stakes in eight plants there with a total capacity of 2,288 MW, or 20% of the country's total. Worldwide, Mirant--which filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 in July 2003--owns or controls more than 22,000 MW in North America, Caribbean nations, and the Philippines.
In the early 1990s, the economy of the Philippines was trying to shift into high gear, but the lack of new capacity development and an aging national grid were holding it back. The World Bank suggested that the national government attract inward investment by approving build-own-operate (BOO) and build-own-transfer (BOT) schemes for power project development. The latter got traction, and the rest is history.
The Pagbilao Power Plant represents the first fruit of the new structure (Figure 1). In August 1992, Mirant Philippines Corp. signed a memorandum of understanding with the Philippines' National Power Corp. (NPC) and other government agencies to build a two-unit, 700-MW coal-fired power station on Isla Grande (in the municipality of Pagbilao, Quezon province, about 100 miles south of Manila), operate the plant for 29 years, and then turn it over to NPC. At the same time, Mirant also signed an energy conservation agreement (ECA) that made NPC--the state-owned utility--responsible for acquiring the 500 acres of land on which the plant would sit, securing its fuel supply, and building the transmission facilities needed to move the plant's output off the island and onto the grid of Luzon, the Philippines' main island.
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