British firm to invest $100M in 3 power plants in Negros

British power firm Bronze Oak Ltd. is likely to invest more than $100 million to put up three more biomass co-generation power plants in Negros within the next three years as part of its commitment to help the government in promoting development of renewable sources of energy.

Bronze Oak was part of the trade mission sponsored by the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and the British Embassy Manila in line with the recently concluded ASEAN Energy Business Forum.

Graham Stowell, Bronze Oak Philippines president, said the company is trying to triplicate its effort to construct similar 30-megawatt biomass co-generation plant in Victorias, Negros Occidental which is now being undertaken by its subsidiary, Talisay Bioenergy Inc. The total cost of the Talisay biomass project is $57 million. State-owned Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) takes up 30 percent of the project which is expected to go on commercial operation by August 2006.

"We are looking at an average of $57 million per project. But we are not shouldering all of it. We usually get a partner," he said.

On top of these possible biomass projects, Stowell said they are also looking at other rice hull projects.

"We have been very optimistic on the potentials of the biomass industry in the Philippines. Though there are some restrictions in selling the power from this kind of power facility, we hope that this could be partially addressed by the creation of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) wherein customers can choose where to source its power requirements," Stowell said.

Biomass is one of the new and renewable energy (NRE) sources being developed by the DOE which comes from residue of animal and plant wastes.

Under the PEP, a total of 42,039 biomass systems contributed about 77 million barrels of fuel oil equivalent (MMBFOE) to the total energy mix in 2001.

Bagase, woodwastes and coconut residues are generally used for in-plant power generation and process heating in the industrial sector such as sugar milling industry, wood processing plants and coconut oil mills.

Agro-industrial manufacturing companies are normally utilizing manufacturing animal and industrial wastes mainly to augment their energy requirements and dispose their process wastes.

Biomass fuel like fuelwood, coconut residues, charcoal, ricehull and biogas, are still the common fuel cooking in households in rural areas including restaurants and bakeries.

Based on the projections of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the aggregate biomass supply potential in 2003 is equivalent to 271.7 MMFOE and is still expected to exhibit a modest growth of 1.9 percent annually, increasing to 295.5 MMBFOE in 2007 and 323.1 MMBFOE in 2012.