By Lenie Lectura - November
12, 2017
A PUBLIC consultation on the
region’s first ocean-power project to be located in Capul Island, Northern
Samar, was held last month.
With this, project proponent San Bernardino
Ocean Power Corp. (SBOPC) said the San Bernardino Strait inches closer to
becoming the launch pad for the Philippines and the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations region’s first commercial ocean-power plant.
The power project involves an
initial 1.5-megawatt (MW) power plant, with the potential to increase its
capacity to 3 MW. It will harness the marine-current resource in San Bernardino
Strait, which separates the islands of Luzon and Samar. Northern
Samar Electric Cooperative will be the off-taker of the 1.5-MW plant.
Samar Electric Cooperative will be the off-taker of the 1.5-MW plant.
San Bernardino Strait’s tidal
currents have a 500-MW potential. Tidal currents are predictable, and produce
massive kinetic energy to run marine turbines.
The tidal farm is scalable to
electrify Calintaan and Matnog in Sorsogon that have a demand of up to 20 MW
for the next three years.
The project is envisioned to benefit
the nearby municipalities of San Antonio and the major towns of the provinces
of Sorsogon and Northern Samar within SBOPC’s concession areas.
The SBOPC is a joint venture of
Sabella Société par Actions Simplifiée (Sabella) of France and H&WB
Asia Pacific (Pte. Ltd.) Corp. It secured three ocean-power service
contracts from the Department of Energy in 2013.
Sabella will deploy a resilient
marine turbine that will utilize tidal in-stream energy conversion (Tisec)
technology, an ocean-power technology mostly adaptable in Philippines waters.
“Tisec could be the technology of
choice in ocean renewable-energy development in the Philippines,” said Antonio
A. Ver, president of H&WB.
At present, electricity supply in
the island of Capul is under the Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) of the
National Power Corp. (Napocor).
The remote island solely relies on
obsolete, costly, and polluting diesel generators for electricity.
The Napocor currently supplies 60
percent of Capul’s electricity at not more than eight hours a day.
Napocor’s diesel generators
will be operated in tandem with the tidal turbines under a hybrid scheme until
the island is weaned from the SPUG.
Once operational, the ocean-power
plant will become a qualified third-party provider, which will handle both
electricity generation and distribution to sustainably energize the entire
island, 24/7.
The proposed project is in support of
Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi’s vision to prioritize the electrification of
unserved areas and raise the country’s renewable-energy mix.
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