Trans-Asia starts feasibility studies on proposed wind power projects

MANILA, Philippines - Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Corp., the power generation arm of the Phinma Group, has started feasibility studies for its proposed wind power projects.

TA Oil president Francisco Viray told reporters yesterday that they first took the measurement of the wind potential in Cagayan, Guimaras, Nueva Valencia and Sinubag.

He said they would be firming up the construction details of these wind farm facilities as soon as the government releases the rules on feed-in tariff (FIT).

The company earlier said it is ready to start the construction of a 54-megawatt (MW) wind project in San Lorenzo, Guimaras Island in Iloilo.

But Viray said they would not want to start pouring capital into these projects without any idea on the return on their investment.

“The feed-in tariff is very crucial to us, to make an investment decision,” Viray said.

TA Oil was supposed to bid out the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for San Lorenzo but decided to defer it pending the release of the FIT rules.

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is expected to come up with a final ruling on FIT in March next year. The FIT offers guaranteed payments over a definite period of time to developers of wind, solar, run-of-river hydro, biomass and ocean as sources of energy.

For the San Lorenzo wind project in Guimaras, the company is looking at initially putting an eight-MW wind farm, gradually increasing it to 54 MW.

Guimaras is one of 12 areas identified by the Department of Energy with high potential for wind energy utilization.

TA oil plans to sell five MW of the electricity output of the San Lorenzo wind project to Panay through submarine cable, and the remaining three MW will be utilized by Guimaras province.

The Energy Department has awarded TA Oil, through its renewable energy arm Trans-Asia Renewable Energy Corp., 10 wind energy service contracts covering an aggregate area of 22,000 hectares last year.

The wind sites are located in Cagayan, Guimaras, Aklan, Camarines Norte and Iloilo.

TA oil is looking to build up to 400 MW of wind projects with total investments of as much as $1 billion.