LAPU-LAPU CITY — San Miguel Corporation (SMC) has signified its intention to invest in a liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered plant here. The project will make Mactan Island as home of Cebu’s biggest power plant.
Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard Chan said Thursday he is “very thankful for another victory our city will achieve soon,” noting that SMC will invest PHP60 billion in the construction of the 600-megawatt power plant project.
The E-Connect Energy website said transforming gas into electric power is made possible through the thermodynamic process of converting the chemical energy stored in the natural gas to thermal energy through mechanical energy to electrical energy.
Chan said SMC’s entry into the power sector in Lapu-Lapu City where it intends to pour its investment for its first-ever LNG-propelled power plant, is also expected to help solve electric power supply woes which are not only experienced in Mactan Island but the entire Cebu province.
He said the project will also create jobs for Mactan Island residents, and Oponganons, which refers to Mactan Island residents, and adjacent cities in Cebu, will no longer experience power problems.
Chan said the city government’s effort to tap investors is bearing fruit and the decision of SMC, the country’s largest and most diversified conglomerate, to invest in Mactan proves that.
“It simply means that our current administration is really close to investors or big investors because they have a lot of confidence in our management and care for the Oponganon people),” he said, adding that more big businessmen informed him of their intention to invest and contribute to the economic growth of Lapu-Lapu City.
Lapu-Lapu City, including the island villages of Olango Group of Islands and the municipality of Cordova, is within the distribution franchise area of the Mactan Electric Company.
It sources the electric power for its households and industrial clients like the Mactan-Cebu International Airport and the Mactan Export Processing Zone from the Kepco-SPC in Naga City in southern Cebu.