Energy Development Corp. (EDC) is investing P14.447 billion for an 86-megawatt wind power plant in Ilocos Norte as its first foray in a series of renewable energy projects in the country. Board of Investments executive director Lucita P. Reyes said that EDC has created a wholly-owned unit Burgos Wind Energy System as the implementing vehicle for the said new venture. The BoI has already approved the project with incentives.
The wind power facility to be located in Burgos, Ilocos Norte will start commercial operation in December 2014 employing 25 people.
Reyes said that BoI has cancelled the 40-MW EDC wind power project in Ilocos, which was registered in 2001, but did not materialize. This makes the Burgos Wind project the first for EDC to be registered with the BoI. The other EDC projects registered with the BoI were all geothermal energy projects.
Reyes said that EDC is planning to establish five more wind power projects, but there is no definite timetable yet although the company has been issued service contract by the Department of Energy for such proposed RE projects. The EDC wind power project in Ilocos is the biggest investment approved by the BoI in the first two months of this year.
With the EDC power project, there will be a total of three wind power projects in Ilocos Norte. The other wind projects in Ilocos include the North Wind power project in Pangui, Pagudpud, which is operational already, and the 120-MW project of Energy Logic Philippines.
EDC, a subsidiary of state-owned Philippine National Oil Co. was established in 1976 to undertake the exploration and development of geothermal energy sources in the country. It is engaged in integrated power generation and the sale of steam to the National Power Corporation (NPC). It was PNOC-EDC that was responsible for making the Philippines the 2nd largest producer of geothermal steam and user of wet steam technology for energy production.
To date, PNOC-EDC operates nine geothermal steamfields with an aggregate capacity of 1,145 megawatts accounting for about 60% of the country’s total installed geothermal power capacity. Since its venture into the power generation business in 1997, it has significantly increased its contribution to the country’s overall power generation. The company presently operates four power plants, which were built through the Build-Operate-Transfer scheme.
It is a pioneer in the geothermal energy industry with more than three decades of proven business viability. It has helped discover new ways of developing and commercializing renewable energy right at the heart of the resource wherever the location and whatever the condition.
From exploration and production of water-based steam power to generation of electricity for commercial use, EDC builds some of the world’s pioneering and most complex steam fields banking on our highly skilled manpower and homegrown technology that are fast becoming benchmarks in the industry. EDC has more than 1,400 megawatts under its green power portfolio diversified by the acquisition of a hydropower project and wind power projects in the pipeline.
It boasts of having added value at every stage of the operation from geoscientific assessment to environmental compliance and from power plant operation to social acceptability.
Its advocacy is to help meet the growing demand for energy delivered by low carbon power options. As a matter of fact, its geothermal energy projects are now qualified in the clean development mechanism purchased in Europe for its low CO2 emissions. EDC aims to strengthen its position as the market leader by developing new greenfield and power generation projects.
By José Santamarta, www.energy.com.ph/
