Aboitiz to sell Batangas biomass power plant

MANILA, Philippines — Aboitiz Power Corp. is selling its 8.8-megawatt (MW) biomass power plant in Lian, Batangas after it decided to stop operating the facility earlier this year.

“That’s something we are trying to sell,” AboitizPower president and COO Antonio Moraza said.

Describing it as a failed project, Moraza said the company would sell the facility at a discount to attract buyers.

“Frankly, I don’t know but obviously they are buying it at a big discount. Maybe with the discount, they can make it viable,” he said.

The 8.8-MW biomass plant is the group’s first biomass project, which was supposed to start commercially operating in the second quarter.

It is under Aseagas Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of AboitizPower through Aboitiz Renewables Inc., its holding company for its investments in renewable energy.

Aseagas permanently ceased operations of the facility last January. Before that, the plant was previously placed on extended shutdown toward the end of 2017 due to lack of feedstock.

Company officials had previously said Aseagas had been encountering issues in getting the plant out of commissioning phase since operating a biomass project is a new territory for the Aboitiz group.

Aseagas has settled its outstanding loan with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) amounting to P2.368 billion.

On top of the loan, the company also invested an equity of around P950 million for the biomass plant and has around P460 million in outstanding liabilities.

As a result of the closure, total value affected is estimated to be at P3.7 billion, which represents Aseagas invested equity of P3.45 billion and the company’s estimated remaining obligations of around P250 million.