A TOTAL of 700 megawatts (MW) of power supply from coal-fired power plants are scheduled to enter the Mindanao power grid this year.
Data on committed power projects from the Department of Energy (DOE) as of December 2018 showed that all four units of the 600 MW GNPower Kauswagan Clean Coal-Fired Power Plant of GN Power Kauswagan Ltd. Co. in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte should already be in the testing and commissioning stage by January of this year.
Unit 1 of the power plant is targeted to start its commercial operations on March, Unit 2 on May, Unit 3 on June, and Unit 4 on August. A total of 330 MWs, which was arranged by Association of Mindanao Rural Electric Cooperative- Power Supply Aggregation Group (Amreco-PSAG), have already been sold and contracted to electric cooperatives.
Also entering the power grid this year is the second 100 MW unit of the Southern Mindanao Coal Fired Power Station of the Sarangani Energy Corporation in the first quarter of the year. However, the 100 MW is already fully contracted to the South Cotabato Electric Cooperative I (Socoteco I).
Located in Maasim, Sarangani, the first 100 MW of the Southern Mindanao Coal Fired Power Station started its commercial operation in 2016. The unit supplies electricity to 24 power distributors.
However, it can be noted that the 700 MW from coal-fired power plants that is about to enter the Mindanao grid this comprises 89 percent of all the 788.31 MW committed power projects that are expected to enter between 2019 and 2020.
Eleven percent or 88.31 MW will be coming from hydropower, solar, and biomass power plants.