Philippine Daily Inquirer / 01:00 AM
June 21, 2017
Leading
sugar firm Victorias Milling Corp. expects to switch on before the end of this
year a P2-billion 40-megawatt biomass power generation plant that will cover
the electricity requirements of the sugar conglomerate and sell the excess to
the national grid.
The
co-generation plant will be operational by the third or fourth quarter of this
year, LT Group Inc. president Michael Tan said in a press briefing after LTG’s
stockholders meeting yesterday.
LTG
is the single biggest investor in VMC with a stake of about 30 percent.
“This will allow us to lower our electricity
cost and export 25MW to the grid,” Tan said.
The
remaining 15MW output of the plant, which was built under a turnkey contract,
will be used by VMC. Construction is expected to take 18 months.
“Since
the FIT (feed-in tariff) is not fully taken up yet for biomass, we should
qualify for that,” Tan said.
FIT
is deemed crucial in boosting the local renewable energy industry as this will
provide developers an incentive to build new capacity with the assurance of
fixed cash flow for the next two decades.
Tan
said VMC’s upcoming co-generation plant would employ newer technology and more
efficient turbines.
The
co-generation plant is under VMC’s subsidiary, Victorias Green Energy Corp.,
which was given 2.9-hectares of VMC’s facility in Victorias City, Negros
Occidental. This unit was set up in 2015 to undertake power-related projects.
VMC
amended its bylaws years ago to make room for diversification into allied
businesses to strengthen operations in view of a low-tariff regime under the
Asean Free Trade Area. For a purely commodities company like VMC,
diversification into power co-generation is seen as a natural step to help
stabilize demand for sugar. —DORIS
DUMLAO-ABADILLA
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