EDC commissions Negros geothermal plant

MANILA, Philippines - Energy Development Corp. (EDC), a Lopez-owned geothermal company, has commissioned its 49.4-megawatt (MW)Nasulo geothermal project in Valencia, Negros Oriental.

The project, targeted to commence operations in 2016, will help augment power supply in the Visayas region, EDC chairman and chief executive officer Federico Lopez said.

“The Nasulo geothermal plant will help address the tightening power supply-demand situation in the Visayas region. We are pleased that one of our greenfield projects is now ready to provide clean, reliable and competitively priced power to the province of Negros Oriental and to our valued customers in the Visayas grid,” he said during Friday inauguration led by Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla.

Based on forecasts of the Department of Energy (DOE), power demand in the Visayas will surpass the current capacity of 2,037 MW by 2015. To address the deficit, the DOE has lined up energy projects, including EDC’s Nasulo plant, the company said.

The project will boost the portfolio of power assets of EDC and its subsidiaries in Southern Negros that includes the 112.5-MW Palinpinon I and 80-MW Palinpinon II geothermal plants of Green Core Geothermal Inc. (GCGI), said EDC president and COO Richard Tantoco.

“The Nasulo geothermal power plant will help us fulfill the needs of our customers.  They have asked EDC for competitively priced power that minimizes foreign exchange fluctuations and volatile fuel price movements  -- so that is exactly the solution we provided,” he said.

EDC accounts for more than 60 percent of the total geothermal capacity installed in the country. 

Aside from the Palinpinon and Nasulo plants, the group’s geothermal portfolio includes the integrated steam and electricity projects in Leyte, Bicol and North Cotabato with a combined installed capacity of 1,130 MW.

It also partly owns and operataes the 132-MW Pantabangan-Masiway hydroelectric plants in Nueva Ecija and, through a subsidiary, is constructing the 87-MW Burgos wind project in Ilocos Norte.