DOE pins hopes on wind energy

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Energy is counting on some 250 megawatts of wind power to be available starting this year until early 2015, a development that could significantly ease the country’s critical power supply situation.

“Around 250 MW (of wind capacity will come in) until early next year,” Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said following a visit to Ilocos Norte, known as the country’s wind farm haven.

The Energy chief visited three wind projects in the province, namely the 33-MW Bangui Windmills operated by NorthWind power Development Corp., the Energy Development Corp.’s 150 MW Burgos wind farm and the 81 MW Pagudpud project of the North Luzon Renewable Energy Corp.

The three projects are racing to be the first to be completed under the feed-in-tariff regime, a set of incentives given to renewable energy players.

“This is a race so I cannot disclose,” Petilla said when asked which of the three would be completed first based on the timetables submitted to the Department of Energy.

EDC officials said the company hopes to put up the first wind project that would avail of the feed-in-tariff. The DOE has approved the tariff for 200 MW of wind projects on a first to commission, first served basis.  

Once operational, the Burgos wind project is envisioned to be the biggest wind farm in the Philippines.

On the other hand, Ayala Corp.’s North Luzon is in the advanced stage of construction of its 81 MW Caparispisan phase 1 wind project in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte.

According to documents submitted to the DOE, the construction of the first phase is now almost 80 percent complete, while the construction of the substation and transmission line is ongoing.

The DOE expects the 81 MW wind project to come online by March next year and help augment supply in the Luzon grid.

Another Ayala-led firm NorthWind Power, meanwhile, is pursuing the third phase expansion of the Bangui  Bay wind farm in Ilocos Norte by adding 18 megawatts from the existing 33 MW, documents from the department also showed.