TOLEDO, Cebu – While still completing power projects that shall help plug capacity gap in the Visayas, Global Business Power Corporation (GBPC) indicated that it is also cementing plans for prospective portfolio expansion in the Luzon grid.

When cornered by reporters at the boiler firing of the company’s 246-megawatt coal fired power project here on Sunday, Cebu Energy Development Corporation (CEDC) senior adviser George S.K. Ty dropped hints that capacity expansion will be cast for Luzon, though he noted that everything is still preliminary on blueprint. CEDC is the corporate vehicle used by the Global Power group for its Toledo coal-fired facility.

Asked on the magnitude of investment being eyed for the country’s largest power grid, Ty just mentioned that “it could be bigger than Visayas.”

CEDC Chairman Francisco Sebastian reinforced the company’s pronouncement on the propounded Luzon expansion, yet he emphasized that the focus for the time being would be Visayas as they want to become instrumental in solving the area’s power supply woes.

“We don’t have anything definite for Luzon for now, it’s still too early.

We want to concentrate on Visayas first,” he stressed.

As far as the $425 million Toledo power plant project is concerned, Global Power president Jesus N. Alcordo noted that its synchronization to the grid may come on or before February 14 this year, which is two weeks ahead of target.

Alcordo emphasized that amid the apparent bias on renewable energy, the company opted to employ transitional ‘clean coal technology’ for the Toledo facility since the scant supply predicament of Visayas calls for a baseload facility to effectively satiate demand, to which RE capacity would not have been able to address.

He noted the facility will mark “the beginning of a cleaner transitional technology that would not only help address the power shortage in Cebu but also address Cebu’s need for improved environmental management.”

Once the plant is set on stream, CEDC director Dennis Garcia intimated that this will primarily alleviate Visayan Electric Company’s (VECO) dilemma on meeting customer demand.