Page 10 - AsiaElec Week 01

AsiaElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AsiaElec
to September this year, the previous highest rate.
SP Group said that the increase is mainly due to higher energy cost compared with the previous quarter.
The average monthly electricity bill for families living in four-room Housing Board flats will rise by S$2.76, excluding GST.
TRADING
Vietnam to buy Laos electricity from 2021
Vietnam’s electricity firm EVN has signed five new deals to buy electricity from Laos starting from next year, the state-run company said.
The South-East Asian nation faces severe power shortages from 2021, as demand outpaces construction of new plants, with demand expected to exceed supply by 6.6bn kilowatt hours (kWh) in 2021, and 15bn kWh in 2023.
Pacts signed in Hanoi over the weekend with Laos’ Phongsubthavy and Chealun Sekong groups provide for EVN to buy electricity from five hydropower plants, beginning in 2021 and 2022, EVN said.
The plants have combined capacity of 363 megawatts, it added, but gave no details.
The import was approved by the Vietnamese government to mitigate power shortages predicted to hit the country from this year.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade estimates shortages of 3.7bn kWh in 2021 and nearly 10bn kWh the following year.
2023 will be the most stressful with the shortage expected to be around 15bn kWh. From then on it will decrease, with the shortage expected to come down to 7bn kWh and 3.5bn kWh in 2024 and 2025 respectively.
The industry ministry has said not more than 5-8% of electricity can be conserved, and the only way out is to import more from Laos and China.
But buying from neighbouring countries
is only a band-aid solution, and in the long run it is necessary to speed up work on large power generation projects, the government said in a statement. –
GAS-FIRED GENERATION
Developers request to put Philippine LNG on hold
China’s CNOOC Gas and Power and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines have asked for plans
to build the $2bn Tanglawan LNG hub project in the Philippines to be put on hold. The two firms jointly requested that the Philippine Department of Energy (DoE) put the project on hold after Phoenix’s parent company, Udenna, acquired a 45% stake in the Malampaya gas-to-power project from Chevron.
Phoenix now wants to “reassess and submit a new concept” to the DoE, Philippine Secretary of Energy Alfonso Cusi told the BusinessWorld newspaper. “They are not pursuing it. They want to revisit their LNG terminal programme in lieu of the Malampaya development. So I think they are going to tie it together,” Cusi added.
DoE Undersecretary Donato Marcos
told local media that the agency was still evaluating whether to grant Phoenix’s request to put the Tanglawan development on hold.
The Tanglawan LNG facility had been designed to have a capacity of 2.2mn tonnes per year (tpy), and start-up had been targeted by 2023. Phoenix had also planned to build a 2,000-MW power plant to support the project.
The Malampaya scheme provides fuel for power plants with a combined capacity of more than 3,000 MW – or around a third of the Philippines’ power needs. It is operated by Royal Dutch Shell, which holds a 45% stake in the venture. State-owned Philippines National Oil Co. (PNOC) owns the remaining 10% in Malampaya.
Shell’s contract with the Philippine government for Malampaya is set to expire in
2024, though the super-major has requested an extension, based on confidence that gas can be produced beyond that year. The request to put Tanglawan LNG on hold comes after the DoE extended the project’s notice to proceed by six months in July. The extension had
been sought by the project’s developers on permitting concerns, but was due to expire this month or next.
COAL-FIRED GENERATION
Philippines to privatise
Mindanao coal-fed power
plant in 2022
Philippines state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) is aims to privatise the power purchase agreement (PPA) of the 200MW Mindanao coal-fired power project in 2022.
That has been based on the timeline the government-owned company has set for the remaining assets of the National Power Corporation.
The Mindanao coal plant, which is currently operated by German firm-led STEAG State Power Inc., has a build-operate- transfer (BOT) contract that stretches until November 15, 2031.
That will be five years beyond PSALM’s corporate life cycle which will lapse in 2026; and the targeted privatisation timeframe
is also the tail-end year of the Duterte administration. The supply contract of the Mindanao coal-fired power facility is among the remaining privatisation exercises that PSALM has been lining up.
The government also plans to privatise the 797.92MW Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan (CBK) hydro facility in and the 150MW Casecnan hydro plant in 2021.
The divestment structure for the CBK
and Casecnan hydro plants will undergo a feasibility study phase to be carried out by the Asian Development Bank – and that part of the process is set for completion in the next six months.
Beyond the three plants, PSALM is also eyeing to rebid this year the 650MW Malaya thermal power facility after its divestment last year had failed twice and even attempts at negotiated sale had not flourished.
The major remaining power asset that will be under PSALM’s charge is the 1001.10MW Agus-Pulangui hydropower complex that the state-run firm’s board had opted to place first on rehabilitation prior to any targeted sale.
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Week 01 08•January•2020