Co sets June start for biomass plant

MANILA, Philippines - The company of supermarket chain owner Lucio Co expects to start commissioning this June its 9.9-megawatt biomass plant in Nueva Ecija, with commercial operations targeted to commence in October.

Co, the Filipino-Chinese businessman behind the Puregold supermarket chains, earlier bought a majority stake in San Jose City I Power Corp. (SJC I Power), a renewable energy that will build the biomass plant.

According to SJC I Power chief operating officer Edgardo Alfonso, commercial operation will be on Oct. 1.

“The project is 95 percent completed,” Alfonso said.

The project is estimated to cost P1 billion.

Ruby de Guzman, OIC-division chief of the Department of Energy’s Biomass Energy Management Division Renewable Energy Management Bureau, said that Co’s group is also venturing into a second phase of the project, which involves adding 24 MW.

“By June, they will start construction of second phase, which they amended to 24 MW,” De Guzman said.

“The expansion will start as soon as the first phase becomes operational,” Alfonso confirmed.

Alfonso said the project would avail of incentives under the government’s Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) system.

The FIT regime is a form of incentives for renewable energy players.

Feed-in tariffs offer cost-based compensation to renewable energy players among other perks.

The FIT rate approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the power regulator are as follows: P9.68 per kilowatt-hour for solar; P8.53 per kwh for wind, P6.63 per kwh for biomass and P5.90 per kwh for hydropower projects.

Aside from the biomass project, SJC is also looking at other renewable energy projects.