Oriental Energy taps consultancy firm for CDM plan

MANILA, Philippines - Oriental Energy and Power Generation Corp., an affiliate of publicly-listed Oriental Peninsula Resources Group, has commissioned Carbonergy Business Consultancy Services to develop its clean development mechanism (CDM) program.

Carbonergy chief executive officer Peter Pempleton said they have recently signed an agreement with Oriental Energy to come up with a program which is suitable for CDM, particularly on small hydropower projects.

Pempleton said the deal will allow Oriental Energy to handle and manage its CDM-related projects.

Carbonergy, a Philippine-registered company, will be the managing entity for the program and deal with all CDM-related aspects of Oriental’s hydropower portfolio.

Pempleton said they will eventually sell the carbon credits from Oriental Energy’s small hydro projects.

“Oriental Energy’s first project is due to start next year and will be completed 2014, then one year after that the carbon credits will be issued and we will sell that,” he said.

Oriental Energy has bagged some 50 megawatts worth of renewable energy projects from the Department of Energy (DOE). These involve five projects estimated to generate total investments of P7.8 billion.

These projects are the P2.5-billion 18-MW Timbaban hydropower project in Aklan; P2.2-billion 15-MW Culaman run-off river hydro project in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon; and three service contracts for the upper, middle and lower cascades of the Odiongan river in Odiongan, Misamis Oriental with total expected output of 22 MW and project cost of P3.1 billion.

Carbonergy, an international consortium of energy and CDM experts that have been collaborating worldwide for over 12 years, has clients like Swedish Energy Agency and the World Bank. The group is currently engaged in CDM-related works in Kenya, Tanzania and Mongolia.

Carbonergy is also working with PhilCarbon, its local partner, on CDM projects in the Philippines.

PhilCarbon provides a full-cycle and integrative service from project conceptualization, formulation of project feasibility study, project finance packaging, strategies formulation in the development of renewable energy sources for power generation as well as the related transaction documentation for projects eligible under the CDM and trading of carbon credits following the rules and practices under the Kyoto Protocol.

It is also developing several renewable energy projects such as the 50-kilowatt Pasonanca mini-hydro project in Pasonanca, Zamboanga City, one MW upstream Pasonanca river hydro project also in Pasonanca and the 600-kw Magat mini-hydro project in Isabela.

It also plans to develop the 15-MW Sagada wind project in Sagada, Northern Luzon and a 30-MW Bulalacao wind project in Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro.

The company is also planning to develop a 1.5-MW biomass project for Pepsi Cola in Iloilo City and a five-MW biomass project in Sta Barbara, Iloilo.