By
Lenie Lectura- October 31, 2018
THE
Department of Energy (DOE) has certified a 500-megawatt (MW) pumped storage
hydropower project as “project of national significance” under Executive Order
(EO) 30.
The
agency issued a certificate of Energy Projects of National Significance (EPNS)
to Coheco Badeo Corp. (Cohecobadeo) on October 26, according to the DOE web
site.
The
project, located in Kibungan, Benguet province, is still in its predevelopment
stage.
With a
cost amounting to P35 billion, the project will source power from the Amburayan
River to sustain the project. It will be housed on a 15.2-hectare
land located on a higher elevation. It also provides the most mature and
commercially available solution to bulk electricity
and releasing it during peak hours with low operation and maintenance cost, and
high reliability.
This is
the seventh power project certified as EPNS by the DOE.
Recently,
the agency issued CEPNS to Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp.’s
(PNOC-EC) two coal projects: Coal Operating Contracts (COCs) 185 and 186 in
Zamboanga Sibugay. Both are undergoing predevelopment stage.
COCs 185
and 186 intend to conduct exploration activities,
including geologic, mapping, block
boundary survey and drilling to determine the extent, volume, behavior and
quality of coal seams for possible coal-mining operations in line with the
DOE’s directive to explore and develop indigenous energy resources of the
country.
COC 185
covers an area of about 2,000 hectares.
Meanwhile,
COC 186 is composed of five coal blocks and has a total area of more than 5,000
hectares.
The
objective of the two coal projects is “to explore and develop the COC as part
of PNOC-EC’s commitment to harness indigenous sources of energy.”
Atimonan
One Energy Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen),
the power-generation arm of Meralco, is putting up the country’s first ultra
supercritical coal power plant in Atimonan, Quezon province. The facility’s
capacity is 2 x 600 MW. This is the fourth power project certified as EPNS.
The DOE
also declared the 151.2-MW Talim wind- power project of Island Wind Energy
Corp. as “a project of national significance.”
The
project, in its predevelopment stage, was certified under EO 30 on August 30.
It is located in Talim Island, Binangonan, and Cardona, Rizal.
The target date of
the commercial operations of the first 80-MW plant is in June 2020 and the
70-MW plant in June 2021.
The DOE
earlier declared the Kalinga geothermal power project of Aragorn Power and
Energy Corp. (Apec), the power unit of Sy-led APC Group Inc., as an energy
project of national significance.
The DOE
approved Aragorn’s application on August 14.
The said
project is in its predevelopment stage, involving the development of steam
fields that can generate anywhere between 100 MW and 200 MW.
In May
the DOE certified the Visayas-Mindanao Interconnection Project (VMIP) as
the first power project under EO 30.
The VMIP
involves the interconnection of the Visayas and Mindanao via Cebu and
Zamboanga. The project is estimated to be completed in 46 months with an
estimated cost of P52 billion.
The
Visayas-Mindanao interconnection project is meant to interconnect the major
grids into a single national grid expected to help improve the overall power
supply security in the country as sharing of reserves will already become
possible.
EO 30
states that concerned government agencies shall act upon applications for
permits involving Energy Projects of National Significance not exceeding a
30-day period. If no decision is made within the specified processing time
frame, the application is deemed approved by the concerned agency.
This
effectively reduced the time to process the permits needed for power projects
to take off.
In order
for an energy project to be considered among the EPNS, power generation and
transmission projects must have a capital investment of at least P3.5 billion,
significant contribution to the country’s economic development, significant
consequential economic impact, significant potential contribution to the
country’s balance of payments, significant impact on the environment, complex
technical processes and engineering designs, and significant infrastructure requirements.
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