EDC eyes 550-MW wind power capacity

MANILA, Philippines - Energy Development Corp. (EDC), the geothermal power company of the Lopez Group, seeks to add up to 550 megawatts in wind capacity in the next few years with its entry in the renewable energy sector.

“I think there’s a wind potential of about 550 MW,” EDC president Richard Tantoco said Thursday night on the sidelines of the ceremonial signing of a $315-million financing deal for EDC’s 150-MW Burgos wind project.

The financing deal for the project received the support of EKF, Denmark’s export credit agency, and a consortium of global and local banks.

Tantoco said EDC could reach the 550-MW wind capacity in the next few years with the concessions the company currently has in Ilocos Norte and Iloilo.

Last week, EDC announced the completion of the 150-MW Burgos wind project in Ilocos Norte, the largest wind farm in Southeast Asia, boosting efforts to develop renewable energy in the country.

The Burgos wind project will be providing 370 gigawatt-hours of electricity to approximately two million households, enough to displace about 200,000 tons of carbon emissions annually.

It is the largest investment to date in Ilocos Norte. The project occupies a 600-hectare site covering three barangays in Burgos, Ilocos Norte, namely, Saoit, Poblacion and Nagsurot.

EDC also secured contracts for two wind projects in Iloilo, one in Batad and another in Concepcion.

However, Tantoco said the focus for now is the Burgos wind project.

“That’s going to take a long time… So we want to just settle down and enjoy this project,” he said.

The company expects the Burgos wind project to contribute roughly P3.2 billion in revenues yearly. “Burgos, on average, will bring around P2.8 billion to P3.2 billion,” he said.

With its timely commissioning, the Burgos wind project is also poised to be the first to avail of the feed-in-tariff, which the Department of Energy will grant to 200 MW of wind projects on a “first to commission, first served” basis.

The FIT system is a set of incentives given to renewable energy companies to entice them to invest in the sector.

The DOE has nominated the project to the Energy Regulatory Commission as an eligible project under the FIT system. Phase 1 (87 MW) and Phase 2 (63 MW) of the project have achieved the requisite 80 percent electro mechanical completion on Sept. 25, 2014 and Oct. 10, 2014.