URC starts construction of P2.5-B bagasse-fired power plant

Business Mirror
12 Mar 2014 Written by vg 

UNIVERSAL Robina Corp. (URC), the food and beverage unit of the Gokongwei family, on Wednesday said it has started construction of its P2.52-billion bagasse-fired power plant in Negros Occidental. 
The construction marks URC’s entry into power generation to support its sugar-milling operations in the province and help fill the national power demand. 
URC earlier signed with the Department of Energy a 25-year biomass renewable energy operating contract. 
Groundbreaking and time-capsule laying for the plant is scheduled for March 18. It is expected to start operations in August this year. 
“Through this power plant, we will not only reduce the use of fossil fuel, but also sustain the livelihood of many suga-cane farmers in the URC Sonedco area,” Rene Cabati, business unit general manager of URC Sugar, said in a statement. 
The 46-megawatt plant will use bagasse, a sugar-cane by-product of URC’s sugar mill in Kabankalan, Negros Occidental, which has a capacity of 9,000 tons of sugar cane a day. 
Sonedco will need only half the capacity of the biomass-fed boiler and the company plans to sell the rest of the power supply to the national grid. URC earlier promised to sell to the grid about 4 MW to 5 MW during its first year of operation, and to about 16 MW to 22 MW by next year. 
The Sonedco mill is one of five mills owned and operated by the company. 
Its combined output accounts for about 15 percent of the national sugar production. The other mills are Ursumco in Manjuyod, Negros Oriental; Passi in Iloilo; Carsumco in Cagayan province; and the newly acquired Tolong mill in Negros Oriental. 
URC is also building a $35-million ethanol distillery plant in its Ursumco sugar facility that will produce some 100,000 liters per day, or 30 million liters of ethanol fuel a year. VG Cabuag source