Marubeni mulls investments in renewable energy projects

MANILA, Philippines – Japanese trading giant Marubeni Corp. is mulling investments in renewable energy projects.

Masumi Kakinoki, Marubeni senior operating officer for the Power Projects and Infrastructure Division, said this is consistent with the company’s thrust of promoting a cleaner environment.

We are eyeing more investments, especially in renewable projects. We are very much an environment conscious company,” he said.

He said they would likely engage in more geothermal energy resource development.

Marubeni recently turned over the operations of the 52-megawatt Mindanao 1 and 54-MW Mindanao 2 geothermal power plants to Energy Development Corp. The two geothermal power plants, located in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato, were operated by the Mindanao 1 Geothermal Partnership (M1GP), a joint venture between Oxbow Power Corp. and Marubeni Corp., after completion of the cooperation period under the respective Energy Conversion Agreements (ECAs).

The Mindanao 1 and Mindanao 2 geothermal power plants started commercial operations on March 4, 1997 and June 17, 1999, respectively. In October 2006, EDC and MIGP agreed to extend Mindanao 1 power plant’s BOT contract period to coincide with Mindanao 2 power plant’s turnover.

The Mindanao plants are the last of the BOT plants turned over to EDC. In 2006 and 2007, EDC assumed operations of the Unified Leyte plants from California Energy and Ormat. The Unified Leyte plants consist of the 132-MW Upper Mahiao, 232.5-MW Malitbog, 180-MW Mahanagdong and 51-MW Optimization geothermal power plants.

The Marubeni official said they are still studying which kind of renewable projects they will venture into.

“At this moment, we think that the Philippines has enough capacity,” he said.

But he said they would be open to participating in the privatization of the National Power Corp. (Napocor) power plants.

“If we have another opportunity like the privatization of current assets held by the government, we may consider. But at this moment, we are now doing our best to manage our very big assets,” he said. The company now has a contracted capacity of 1,500 MW.   — Donnabelle Gatdula