EDC allots P14.5 billion for wind energy project

MANILA, Philippines - The Energy Development Corp. (EDC) will be investing P14.475 billion for a wind energy project in Burgos Ilocos Norte.

The project has been given income tax holiday (ITH) by the Board of Investments (BOI) because it qualifies under the country’s Investments Priorities Plan (IPP), BOI executive director Lucita P. Reyes said in an interview.

The project has a capacity of 86 megawatts annually and will be operational by December 2014. Originally, the wind power project only has a capacity of 40-MW but it was transformed to 86-MW. EDC decided to increase the capacity in anticipation of power demand growth in Luzon in the near term.

EDC will be supplying the grid because under the Renewable Energy Law the firm cannot supply off grid. The operations will employ 25 people, Reyes said. She said this is the first wind power project registered by the EDC.

Reyes noted that there are five more wind power projects in the pipeline waiting for BOI approval. She declined to say if all the investments were from EDC.

Ilocos Norte presently hosts the 33-MW wind farm of NorthWind Power Development Corp. located in Bangui, the biggest wind farm in Southeast Asia to date.

Based on the Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the Philippines, the best wind resources are found in Batanes, Babuyan Island, Ilocos Norte, Mindoro, Samar, Leyte, Panay, Negros, Cebu and Palawan.

Apart from developing wind power, EDC is also the largest geothermal producer in the country with an installed capacity of 1,149.40 megawatts. This represents 60 percent of the country’s total geothermal capacity.