BOI grants perks to new renewable energy firm

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino-owned Emerging Power Inc. (EPI) has received the package of tax incentives from the Board of Investments (BOI) as a new renewable energy developer putting up a 40 megawatt, $185M-geothermal power project in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro.

The BOI is one of the investment promotion agencies of the government.

The BOI’s grant of incentives to EPI is seen as an indication of the Aquino administration’s resolve to speed up the establishment of more renewable energy facilities to head off anticipated nationwide power outages in the summer of 2015, company officials said over the weekend as they welcomed the tax perks given by the BOI.

“EPI is committed to support the government’s effort to fast track the construction and completion of more power plants – more so renewable power plants – to address the anticipated power crisis in the coming years. We thank the BOI for granting EPI the tax incentives without undue delay,” said EPI chairman Martin Antonio Zamora.

Zamora also expressed hopes that the company would be able to secure the green light from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), to proceed with the project.

EPI’s geothermal power plant project in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro is committed to finish work and start gradually supplying an additional 40 MW of power to the whole island of Mindoro by the third quarter of 2016, Zamora said.

The incentives extended by the BOI include income tax holiday for seven years, duty-free importation of renewable energy machinery, materials and equipment; cash incentive of renewable energy developers for missionary electrification; and tax credit on domestic capital equipment and services, among others.

The BOI perks are given to encourage local and foreign companies to put up renewable power facilities as provided for by the Republic Act 9513 or the Renewable Energy Act of 2008.

Proponents would build the geothermal plant on a multi-use zone that straddles barangays Montelago, Montemayor and Melgar-B in the municipality of Naujan.

They are targeting P2.1 billion in savings or by 40 percent from the current P11 per kilowatt-hour to P6.58 per kWh in electricity bills that the people of Mindoro would pay in four years’ time.

Zamora said the geothermal power project would stabilize power and bring down electricity costs in the blackout-hit island-province which is largely dependent on bunker fuel.

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla earlier welcomed the entry of the EPI geothermal project in the energy mix in the island province of Mindoro saying that geothermal energy would help provide electricity at a lower cost.

EPI has tapped the Geo-Survey Institute of Iceland (ISOR) and the geothermal department of the Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) of Indonesia to carry out the renewable energy project.