Coal-fired Power Plant brings Globalization to a small town in Misamis Oriental

VILLANUEVA, Misamis Oriental – The globalization of this small town in the eastern coastline of Misamis Oriental started a long-time ago when it was once upon a time an unnamed place located between the two municipalities of Jasaan and Tagoloan. Christened “Nueva Villa” (new village) by the Spaniards, it was eventually renamed “Villanueva.”

Relatively young for a municipality at 46 years, its entry into the global economy could be said to have started in Jan. 2, 1975 when the Philippine Sinter Corporation (PSC) was established in a 155-hectare area within the Phividec Industrial Estate-Misamis Oriental (PIE-MO), then the country’s largest industrial estate encompassing the adjacent municipalities of Villanueva and Tagoloan.

Although officially registered as a Filipino corporation, PSC was and still is controlled by Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) of Japan, and became the single biggest Japanese investment in Mindanao. Quite a number of Japanese employees of the plant eventually settled down in nearby Cagayan de Oro city.

PIE-MO was the catalyst which linked this small town in Misamis Oriental with the world, sending many of the products produced in Villanueva and adjacent Tagoloan to markets round the globe in destinations as varied as Australia, USA, Europe, Africa, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China and bringing in raw materials from far away as South America, such as the iron ore sintered by PSC in its plant.

This ‘global’ exposure of PIE-MO resident firms is perhaps best exemplified by the $305-million coal-fired power plant now nearing completion at a 55.42 hectare lot in Bgy. Balacanas, some 18 kms from Cagayan de Oro.

Started by the State Power Development Corporation (SPDC) in December, 1995 as a subsidiary of State Investment Trust, Inc. (SITI), its project proponents were originally led by the Harbin Corp. of China. In 2003, the German power company STEAG Aktiengesselschaft (STEAG AG) acquired 89% of the company, with SITI owning the remaining 11% and SPDC was renamed the STEAG State Power Inc. (SPI).

Interestingly, in an apparent bow to the globalization of business and the comparative advantages provided by outsourcing, SPI has contracted Japanese firms Kawasaki Plant Corporation (KPC) Inc as its construction contractor and Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI), Ltd. as its supply contractor.

Technical support for the project is provided by STEAG AG and STEAG AG Regional Operating Headquarters (branch) through an Assistance Services Agreement / Technical Support Agreement with SPI.

The plant’s impressive pedigree is reflected in the line-up of companies and countries which have contributed to providing equipment, supplies and services to the coal-fired power plant.

This include Japan, China, France, Germany, USA and South Korea which supplied the plant boilers and auxiliaries ; Babcock-Hitachi Phils Inc (Philippines) for Boiler Fabrication; Japanese firms Toshiba, Hitachi, Fuji, Mitsui and other firms from Germany, USA, Netherlands, South Korea, UK, Canada for the steam turbine generators and auxiliaries.

ALSTOM Power (France) and Lurgi AG (Germany) and Japan for the Flue Gas Desulphurization System, a key link in the plant’s anti-pollution infrastructure; firms from South Korean, Germany and Finland for the Coal-Handling System; Indian firms Ion Exchange (India) Ltd. and Thermax, Ltd. and Japan, Daewoo (South Korea) and US Filter for the Water Treatment Plant; TIECO Electric and Machinery Co. (Taiwan), Fuji Electric and Toshiba (Japan) for the High Voltage Motors.

ABB/Bailey (Singapore), Yokogawa (Japan) and Siemens (Germany) for Distributed Control Systems (DCS) ; Kawasaki Steel Co; Toyo Construction (Japan), EEI Corporation, Roblett International Construction, Leighton Contractors (Philippines) and Jurong Engineering (Singapore) for Erection and Civil Works.

The Japanese construction and supply contractors KPC and KHI is headed by Y. Onishi who is backed by a team of 30 Japanese engineers; 10 German engineers and technical personnel under the management of Mr. Karl Heinz Schlechter as the site construction manager, and about 10 members of the commissioning team who are all Germans headed by Mr. Oliver Brock.

Most of the 3,000 workers who have worked or are still working at the site are Filipinos with many coming from the plant’s home town of Villanueva.

Power Plant Operation and Maintenance will also be undertaken by a team of some 170 Filipino Engineers, technical personnel and support staff headed by the power plant Manager Mr. Peter Just, a German national.

With a lineage running back to industrial Europe, dynamic Japan, powerhouse USA, emerging India, and the ‘little dragons’ of Asia in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, Filipino expertise and ingenuity would surely be a match for the exacting standards of German skills and engineering that would bring clean, safe and reliable electricity to the homes and factories of Mindanao in the years to come.

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