September 10, 2018 | 12:06 am By Victor
V. Saulon, Sub-editor
NEGROS ISLAND Biomass Holdings, Inc.
has lined up three biomass projects on Negros island for inclusion in the
government’s feed-in-tariff (FiT) program as the company aims for completion
dates no later than end-2019, the extended deadline for developers to avail of
the guaranteed rate for the energy they produce for 20 years.
Don Mario Y. Dia, vice-chairman of
the holding firm, told reporters the three projects have different target
completion dates, the last of which is possibly towards the end of next year.
The projects are San Carlos
BioPower, Inc. with a capacity of 20 megawatts (MW); South Negros BioPower,
Inc. with 25 MW; and North Negros BioPower, Inc. with 25 MW.
“We have a battery of expats in the
group purposely to complete San Carlos,” he said about the project that is
expected to be completed first.
“We’re now hopefully commissioning
before the year ends,” he said, adding that the project has so far cost around
$55 million to build.
The FiT program is an incentive
scheme that grants priority connections to the grid, priority purchase and
transmission of, and payment for, electricity generated from renewable energy
(RE) sources wind, solar, ocean, run-of-river hydropower and biomass.
Under the rules, eligible RE
developers are guaranteed a rate for 20 years for each kilowatt they produce.
For biomass developers, the rate was set at P6.63 per kilowatt-hour. The rate
was set at P6.5969 per kWh for 2017, when the scheme was supposed to end.
But on Feb. 23, 2018, the Department
of Energy endorsed to the Energy Regulatory Commission the extension of the
biomass and run-of-river hydropower installation targets for two years — from
Dec. 31, 2017 until Dec. 31, 2019 — or upon successful commissioning of
projects covering the unsubscribed balance of their respective installation
targets, whichever comes first.
The rates for biomass for 2018 and
2019, are P6.5639 per kWh and P6.5310 per kWh, respectively.
Of the 250-MW installation target
for biomass projects, up 170.33 MW had so far been taken up and considered
FiT-eligible by the DoE, leaving developers in a race to complete their
projects ahead of the others before the end-2019 deadline.
Mr. Dia, who is also treasurer of
the three BioPower projects, said next to San Carlos, the holding firm expects
to finish the two other projects towards the end of 2019.
“One month before the end of 2019 is
[the completion of] North Negros,” he said, adding that South Negros should be
finished by end-2019.
In all, he placed the cost of the
projects at around $156 million. Their feedstock is sugarcane trash which is
burned to produce energy.
Mr. Dia said International Finance
Corp., the World Bank’s commercial arm, is keen on taking “the whole chunk” of
the projects, allowing the company to regain its investment to fund more
biomass projects.
“They just want to be there, and
then they’ll just watch us. We will run the show,” he said. “They just want
that (biomass) in their portfolio.”
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