By Jose Bimbo F. Santos
NATIONAL POWER Corp. (Napocor) will tie up with French company Enertine to provide power using biomass technology to areas not reached by the country’s main grids, the state-owned company’s top official said.
“For Enertine, there is no specific raw material as they are okay with any biomass material,” Napocor President Froilan A. Tampinco told reporters.
The usual biomass feedstock are agriculture by-products such as rice and sugarcane husks, crop stalks as well as wood wastes, logging residues and dead wood.
“The only requirement is we go to a site where there is a sustainable source of raw material for biomass, so we are still assessing,” Mr. Tampinco said.
The project will be carried out under Napocor’s Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG), which is the company’s electrification program. SPUG provides electricity to remote islands and far-flung island villages not connected to any of the country’s three main grids.
The biomass facilities will be installed in different locations and may combine for a total capacity of up to 42 megawatts.
“They are ready to come in with whatever capacities are necessary as long as we identify the site, the load and if there can be a source of sustainable biomass raw material,” Mr. Tampinco said.
“They are also ready to come in with financing but we’re also exploring [options] with IFC (International Finance Corp.) and World Bank,” Mr. Tampinco added. The IFC is the World Bank’s funding arm for the private sector.
Napocor’s main grid operations are now being handled by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) following the passage of Republic Act 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001.
“We’re focusing on off-grid so the capacity requirements are rather small and to me, that’s the beauty or the value of renewable energy because it’s readily adaptable for small loads,” Mr. Tampinco said.
SPUG operates 304 generating units with a total capacity of about 129 megawatts. Operations include a hydroelectric plant and a hybrid wind turbine farm. It also serves 78 island grids and eight isolated grids providing electricity to 42 customers consisting of 39 electric cooperatives and three local government units.
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