Allow Quezon power plant to run, ERC urged
Credit to Author: JORDEENE B. LAGARE| Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2019 17:13:12 +0000
THE Department of Energy (DoE) has asked the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to act on Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) permit to operate the 455-megawatt (MW) power plant in Mauban, Quezon to boost the country’s power supply.
“I wrote [a letter to the] ERC and I manifested to ERC the importance of it being online because that supply is necessary to augment the present supply of the country,” Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said on the sidelines of a media forum in Manila.
ERC spokesman Floresinda Digal confirmed the agency received DoE’s letter. “Sec. Cusi’s letter is just asking for [an] update on the case,” Digal said in a text message to The Manila Times.
The P56.2-billion supercritical coal-fired power plant of San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co. (SBPL), a joint venture of Meralco PowerGen Corp., the power generation arm of Meralco, and New Growth B.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Electricity Generating Public Co. Ltd. (EGCO) of Thailand, was supposed to commence commercial operations on September 15.