Meralco Signs Off-Take Supply Contract

Manila Bulletin
By MYRNA M. VELASCO
November 23, 2011, 10:41pm


MANILA, Philippines — Power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) has signed an off-take deal with the project developer of a proposed P1.5 billion (US$35.5 million) waste-to-energy facility which is expected on stream by 2013.


The project to be undertaken by local firm Cleansave Water Corporation will be implemented on a non-recourse project finance basis. It will have a net generating capacity of 145.7 gigawatt hours (GWh) at a plant load factor of 85 percent.


“The greater part of the power generated at the plant will be sold to Meralco,” the CleanSave power project brief has stated. The purchase price, it said, has been referenced on the prevailing grid rate.


The project blueprint indicated that the facility “will be interconnected directly to (Meralco’s) distribution system at 34.5 kV (kilovolt) with about 80% of its output sold to Meralco pursuant to a power sales agreement.”


The project’s construction is scheduled to commence next year, and commercial operation will be 18 months after or around 2013.


For its fuel utilization, the project developer noted that it is currently establishing a Municipal Solid Waste Autoclave Facility at the Pier 18 Vitas Compound in Tondo. Manila.


The technology to be deployed for the project, it said, is anchored on the autoclaving process developed by the United Kingdom; while the plant configuration will be based on the application of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) for power generation.


“The technology solution is being introduced in the Philippines as an option to various existing municipal waste processing given the limitation of land and the negative public perception to landfill,” the project sponsor has noted.


As designed, the plant will start the process with the input material of 750 tons per day of unsorted garbage (MSU) and ends at the mechanical separator where recyclable materials are recovered.


“The power plant, if implemented, will provide 100-percent of the in-plant electricity needs and displacing purchased power from the local utility,” the project developer said.


It has been emphasized that fuel costs will be saved because “the steam from the power plant will replace equivalent steam” which may be supplied by a low-pressure boiler diesel power facility.