LT Group seeks FIT incentives for Batangas project

MANILA, Philippines – The Lucio Tan Group (LTG) hopes to join the race for feed-in tariff (FIT) incentives with its solar power project in Batangas.

The group, through Absolut Distillers Inc., is working on a FIT certificate of compliance for its two-megawatt  solar plant in Batangas, plant manager Jojo Tan said.

“NGCP (National Grid Corp. of the Philippines) told us build a remote terminal unit to feed to them,” he said.

Tan said they filed for a FIT application as soon as the plant started running and they expect to meet the deadline for the second round of FIT for solar.

The Department of Energy has given solar developers until March 2016 to complete and produce power from their projects to be able to receive the set of incentives under the FIT mechanism.

For solar, eligible developers can get P8.69 per kilowatt hour FIT rate, among other incentives, for an installation target of 500 MW.

Last March, ADI inaugurated its P189-million solar plant in its Batangas facility, the first to operate in the province, which can supply up to 60 percent of the alcohol distillery’s power requirements. It can also sell the entire output to the Luzon grid.

The solar plant’s capacity currently supplies 40 percent of the alcohol distillery’s power requirements.

The solar plant is LTG’s first project under its renewable energy (RE) development plan.

ADI is planning to invest at least P500 million to put up a sugar mill and co-generation plant in its Batangas facility.

Asian Alcohol Corp. another liquor unit of LTG under Tanduay, is also looking at the possibility of putting up a wind project in its facility in Negros Occidental.