Biz Leaders Welcome Coal-Fired Power Plant Expansion in Toledo City to Prevent Outages

Business stakeholders in Cebu welcomed the expansion project of a coal-fired power plant in Toledo City as a way to prevent outages that happened in Aklan early this year.

They said that concerns about the environment will be “outweighed” by the economic benefits that will come with more power supply considering the dwindling reserves in the Visayas grid which Cebu is a part of.

Aboitiz-led Therma Visayas Inc (TVI) will expand its existing coal-fired power plant in Toledo City bringing in an additional 169-megawatt “on-island” power supply.

“More power supply is always better,” said Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) president Charles Kenneth Co in an interview with reporters.

Co believes that “Aboitiz being a responsible corporate citizen will surely use green technology to keep the coal clean.”

Just like its previous power plants, Aboitiz assures that its expansion will also be equipped with green technology. Particularly, they will be using a “Circulating Fluidize Bed” which would lessen the emission of toxic chemicals in the atmosphere.

According to the Science Direct website, the CFB combustion system is counted as one of those technologies that facilitate the use of fuels in an environmentally satisfactory and economically viable way. CFB technology belongs to the group of clean coal technology, it said, nearly eliminating the pollutants.

Former MCCI President Steven Yu said Cebu’s base load power is fast dwindling because of aging plants and the expansion coal plant from TVI would help improve the situation.

“It is public knowledge that our plants are aging, starting to frequently break down and we are lacking sufficient spare capacity to supplant it if something massive simultaneous breakdown happens,” Yu explained.

Yu emphasized that the economic benefits of preventing “costly outages” outweigh environmental concerns, especially with the presence of green technology on clean coal.

“While we are scaling up on our RE generation capacity, this will help stabilize our power supply versus demand and avoid costly blackouts. The negative environmental effects are being outweighed by the positive impact on the economy and other offsetting carbon reduction measures,” he told reporters in a separate interview.

As of Friday, January 26, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) showed that the Visayas grid has the lowest power reserve at 269MW as compared to the Luzon and Mindanao grids.

Visayas has a 2,411MW available power supply while its peak demand is at 2,117MW.

Luzon has 3,608MW of power reserves while Mindanao has 802MW.

MCCI incoming president Mark Ynoc emphasized the importance of a stable power supply as vital in the continued recovery of business establishments from the downturn during the pandemic.

Ynoc said that the population is expected to grow and investments are also pouring in on Cebu which would need more power supply.

“When there is a pressing need for power then we need additional generation capacity and infrastructure,” Ynoc said.

The Department of Energy has already endorsed TVI’s expansion of its coal plant in Toledo City, located some 48 kilometers west of Cebu City or about an hour and a half drive from the capital city. (ZAG)