MERALCO Power Gen Corp. (MGen) said on Thursday the Department of Energy (DOE) has approved the development of the 1,200-megawatt coal-fired Atimonan plant in Quezon province after being recalled.
“We received from [the] DOE the letter [after] completing the review of Atimonan. We’re rebooting the project and presenting it to our board. Again, we’ll continue the project development. It will still be coal-fired. We are just reviewing everything for now,” MGen President and CEO Emmanuel Rubio told The Manila Times on Thursday.
He also said that no exact plans have been made for it, but they are preparing for a possible Power Supply Agreement via a Competitive Selection Process in the future.
The DOE previously approved the exemption from the coal moratorium of the said plant, but the agency recalled it for review.
The reason is that the Philippines implemented a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants in 2020, but the DOE has long clarified it is not a total ban on coal.
It explained that the moratorium is only for greenfield coal projects, or those that are not yet existing.
Meanwhile, existing coal plants and projects in progress, and similar power projects with substantial accomplishments are exempt from the moratorium.
For the Atimonan plant, MGen initially proposed to develop this facility under the environmental compliance certificate issued in 2015, and is considered a super critical project under previous agreements.
In a previous interview in April, Rubio said that he was planning to bring this up to the board of directors for approval around June if the approval of the plant originally pushed through.
MGen is the generation arm of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
Meralco’s Friday share price went up by P0.50 to close at P533.50 per share.
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