Petron Corporation has unveiled design update for its planned P10 billion co-generation power facility – entailing eventual fuel shift to petroleum coke (also referred to as petcoke) from the initially proposed utilization of coal.

In an investors’ briefing, Petron senior vice president and general manager Lubin B. Nepomuceno disclosed that the 70-megawatt power facility will be constructed in 24 to 27 months, with the first unit coming on stream three months ahead of the other.

Of the planned 2x35 units, he noted that the facility will still have potential surplus of 20 to 30 megawatts that they can sell to the grid, hence, driving up more value for the company. The targeted commercial operation is 2012.

The more important consideration factored in by the company, is the P1.0 billion yearly savings it would be able to generate by having its own source of power, plus the guarantee of having reliable and sufficient power supply amid threats of power supply shortages in the short-term. “The power project will yield savings for the company,” Nepomuceno stressed.

In other countries, self-generation flourished as a preferred option for many power-intensive industries, with many vouching it to be a very efficient proposition. Several of those which ventured into on-site generation experimented with co-generation, or the technology application which involves a process wherein a fuel is used first to produce electricity, and secondly, to provide heat for space or process heating.

Through a distillation process, it was explained that the steam coming from an oil refining facility may also be used for electricity generation.

The power facility’s technical design will be for it to be equipped with circulating fluidized bed (CFB) technology, roughly similar to the design of the power facilities set up for paper manufacturing firm TIPCO in Bulacan and the other is the Todelo facility in Cebu.

But eventually, Nepomuceno indicated, “it (plant) can use our refinery by-product, it is called petcoke, to replace the coal.”

Petcoke is a carbon-based solid derived from oil refinery coker units or from other cracking processes.

Petron justified that having an embedded generation at its refining facility will give it better assurance of power supply reliability.