Dev’t blueprint for Semirara-Antique plant firmed up

As planned, the Consunji firm will be building the 50MW mine-mouth facility and TransCo will be installing the transmission line for the wheeling of its capacity. 



Via a memorandum of understanding (MOU) inked with the Department of Energy (DoE), the Semirara Mining and Power Corporation  (SMPC) subsidiary of the Consunji group had cemented development blueprint for its planned 50-megawatt mine-mouth power plant project in Antique, proximate to its coal mining site.

The approval processes for the project’s permits and required licenses shall also serve as a “test case” to the viability of Executive Order (EO) 30, according to Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi.

EO 30 is the Duterte administration’s flagship policy aimed at harmonizing and streamlining approval processes for power projects, so such critical undertakings will not suffer delays.

The Antique mine-mouth power project has been intended to serve the energy needs of the island provinces – initially of Mindoro and then nearly Marinduque, Romblon and prospectively Palawan.

The MOU was signed by the energy chief with SMPC President and Chief Operating Officer Victor A. Consunji, and witnessed by other relevant parties, including heads of electric cooperatives and National Power Corporation President Pio J. Benavidez, as the state-run firm exercises supervision over island grids; as well as National Transmission Corporation President Melvin A. Matibag on the transmission component of the project.

“We assisted the development of a mine-mouth coal-fired power plant or a power plant using indigenous coal as fuel to address the growth in the baseload demand and required reserves of Semirara island along with the other neighboring islands and provinces,” Cusi stressed.

Source: Manila Bulletin