To ensure continuous power supply to the Luzon Grid, GNPower Dinginin Ltd. Co. (GNPD) and GNPower Mariveles Energy Center Ltd. Co. (GMEC) visited five different coal mines in South Sumatra, Indonesia last June 26 to 30.
The visit aimed to strengthen ties with suppliers and expand to other potential ones to ensure a long-term coal supply to the two power plants.
The Fuels Department, headed by department manager Miron Cristian Feliciano, surveyed the coal mines and assessed logistics parameters to ensure sustained and reliable supply to GMEC and GNPD’s business operations.
Based on the International Trade Administration data, the Philippines is largely a coal consuming country with coal having the highest contribution to the power generation mix at 30.2% in 2022. Both GMEC and GNPD plants are powered by sub-bituminous coal sourced from Indonesia, which are delivered to the Philippines and efficiently turned into energy.
By conducting these mine visits, both power plants satisfy their long-term coal requirements, allowing them to strengthen business continuity and supply clean, affordable, and efficient energy to the Luzon grid.
The mine visits also allowed the team to witness and benchmark the operations of the Indonesian coal mines while also building a steady kinship with the suppliers, traders, marketing professionals, and management.
Furthermore, it introduced efficient techniques that could be applied to properly mitigate and understand the risks and challenges related to coal management, from mine site to ship loading.
To this day, coal remains to be the most affordable and abundant source of energy in the country. Furthermore, coal’s versatility and reliability allow power plants like GNPD and GMEC to continuously generate electricity despite unforeseen weather conditions, like intense winds and rainfall.
As the El Niño Phenomenon has set in and four yellow alerts are projected to happen in the country as announced by the Department of Energy, GMEC and GNPD commits to perform over and beyond of what is expected to be of service to the Filipino community.
