Japan, South Korea boosting energy investments in the Philippines

Kepco, Mitsui and Mitsubishi studying opportunities.

Korea Electric Power Corporation and Japanese firms Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsui & Co. Ltd. Are serious about putting more capacity and are scouting for locations, said Secretary of Energy Jericho Petilla. Marubeni and Mitsui are also doing the same thing.

Petilla said Kepco, Mitsui, Marubeni want to invest in any power generation project. They are open to joint ventures.

Kepco officials earlier said they were interested in expanding their presence in the Visayas region south of Metro Manila. Kepco owns the 200 MW Cebu coal-fired power plant that began operations in 2011. It also operates the 1,200 MW Ilijan combined cycle natural gas power plant in Batangas province in southern Luzon.

Mitsui is interested in participating in the liquefied natural gas industry.

Marubeni and Tokyo Electric Power Company have set-up a joint venture called TeaM Energy that operates the 735 MW Pagbilao coal plant in Quezon province.