Atimonan One Energy Inc., or A1E, a subsidiary of Meralco PowerGen Corp., remains committed to developing its proposed 2,400-megawatt liquefied natural gas power LNG, facility in Atimonan, Quezon.

However, the project will now proceed on a revised timeline.

“The next window we are looking at for Atimonan (plant) is around 2028 or 2029,” Meralco executive vice president and COO Ronnie Aperocho said in a spot interview last week.

The entire project, to be built in two phases of 1,200 MW capacity each, was initially estimated to require an investment of P175 billion.

A1E was supposed to start with the construction of the power project last year but it did not proceed as planned.

The first phase of this project was originally scheduled to be finished by the first quarter of 2026, while the second phase is likely to take three years or by 2029 to complete.

Power deals

Despite the revised project timeline, Aperocho conveyed that A1E will also continue to pursue power deals with Meralco, its parent company, using the power that will be generated from the power plant projects.

Before proceeding with the development, Aparecho noted that A1E needs to verify if all necessary permits, such as the Environmental Compliance and Certificate, are still valid.

Previously, A1E targeted building a highly efficient 1,200-MW ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plant with low emissions in Atimonan, Quezon.

However, the project did not come to fruition due to opposition from environmental groups and the lack of a power supply agreement.

As a result, the environmental compliance certificate for the transmission line that was issued for the previous coal plant on 27 May 2016 will be amended for the newly proposed project in Barangay Villa Ibaba, Atimonan.