PetroEnergy Resources to spend over P5 billion for wind power plants

MANILA, Philippines - Publicly-listed PetroEnergy Resources Corp. (PERC) will spend over P5 billion for its wind power projects in Aklan and Pangasinan, a ranking company official said.

PERC vice president Francisco Delfin Jr. told reporters that the company will put up a 30-megawatt (MW) wind power plant in Nabas-Buruanga-Malay in Aklan with an estimated investment of $53 million, or about P2.6 billion.

Another 30-MW wind project, he said, will be constructed in Sual, Pangasinan at roughly the same cost.

The company’s venture into wind power is a diversification from its existing oil and gas business.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, PERC said it will conduct technical feasibility studies and is expected to spend about $500,000 over the two-year pre-development stage of the contracts to assess and confirm the wind power potential in the two areas.

Delfin said they expect to start the study within the year and complete it in two years’ time.

He said they will utilize wind technology from US-based NRG Wind Mast Systems for the wind project.

“Hopefully, during that period of 18 months, the wind data recording and modeling will indicate that the power potential is there,” he said.

At the same time, he said the company is urging the Department of Energy (DOE) to push for the issuance of rulings on feed-in tariff for renewable energy (RE) projects.

“Now, the key is that during this period we are essentially risking money for capital to advance the cause of renewable energy. So, to move from exploration to actual power development through wind, the government, through the DOE, must formulate a favorable feed-in tariff. A feed-in tariff will make transient renewable energy resources like wind and solar really competitive with baseload plants like coal and geothermal. That’s the next step and we believe that the DOE is already doing this very important task of formulating a feed-in tariff for renewable energy,” he said.

He said they will decide if they will proceed with the projects once the study is completed and the feed-in tariff is in place.

“For both areas we’re looking at least 30 MW each – 30 MW in Sual and 30 MW in Nabas. During the pre-development phase or the technical feasibility study we will be investing about $500,000 – should the project come to fruition and the feed-in tariff is favorable and we proceed to the actual commercial development, he said.

The feed-in tariff is a provision in the Renewable Energy Act which allows the government to set an above-market rate to encourage investors to develop more RE projects.