TeaM Energy to put up RE projects

Manila Times.net

BY EUAN PAULO C. AÑONUEVO REPORTER

TEAM Energy Corp. is planning to diversify to renewable sources to complement its coal-fired power plants in the Philippines.

Federico Puno, TeaM Energy president, said the company is keen on putting up several mini-hydro, solar and biomass projects with a total capacity of 50 megawatts.

“We have to start this year [or] at least next year,” he said.

The company is conducting feasibility studies for the proposed projects, which would cost an estimated $2.5 million to $3 million per megawatt to put up.

TeaM Energy is the consortium of Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Marubeni Corp. that bought the Philippine assets of US-based Mirant Corp. for $3.4 billion in 2007. These assets include the 1,200-megawatt Sual and 600-megawatt Pagbilao coal plants.

For its mini-hydro plants, TeaM Energy plans to build five facilities with a five-megawatt generating capacity each in the Mountain Province.

The company is also mulling over two 10-megawatt solar power installations for industrial customers in Bulacan and Batangas.

An 11-megawatt biomass power facility that will run on coconut leaves and/or rice husk in Quezon is also on the drawing board.

Puno said the company is willing to push through with the proposed solar projects even without the feed-in-tariff incentives for renewable energy projects because they would tap directly industrial customers.

Mandated by the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, the FIT is the incentive that would be shouldered by consumers to ensure guaranteed returns for qualified proponents of green power projects.

Roderick de Castro, TeaM Energy Foundation Inc. deputy executive director, said the company’s corporate social responsibility arm will expand its household electrification project in partnership with the Department of Energy.

TEFI is looking at energizing 4,063 households in Luzon, up from the current 3,400. In the Visayas and Mindanao, the foundation is targeting an additional 558 and 1,769 homes.

Once completed, the project would contribute to almost 90 percent of the government’s household electrification drive in far-flung and off-grid areas.