Burgos wind farm to supply 150 MW to Luzon grid

BURGOS, Ilocos Norte, Philippines – The Lopez Group’s 150-megawatt Burgos Wind Farm and its upcoming four-MW solar power facility here could help augment tight power supply in the Luzon grid this summer, an official of First Gen Corp. said yesterday.

“Anytime the wind is blowing, (the wind farm) will generate up to 150 MW,” said Aloysius Santos, vice president of First Gen., the power generation company of the Lopez Group.

He said even during the summer, there is a potential for the wind farm to generate 150 MW of power because there will still be windy days.

“The 150 MW is always there. Whatever wind it can pick up, it can go to the grid. It will add and augment to the capacity that’s needed,” Santos said.

There is a projected power supply shortage of at least 700 MW this summer on the back of higher demand during the hot months and the one-month maintenance shutdown of the Malampaya natural gas field in offshore Palawan.

The Malampaya facility, which supplies 40 percent of Luzon grid’s requirements, is scheduled to shut down from March 15 to April 15 for maintenance.

Santos said the 150-MW capacity could power up to 300,000 households a month, depending on their kilowatt-hour consumption.

First Gen affiliate Energy Development Corp. (EDC), the Lopez-led geothermal company, started operations of the 150- MW wind farm in November last year, boosting the Philippines’ bid to wean itself off fossil fuels.

Richard B. Tantoco, EDC president and chief operating officer, said during the start of operations: “Renewable energy has a long way to go before it can meet our country’s ever-growing energy demands. But this is a significant step.”

The farm sits on a 600-hectare property covering three barangays in the municipality of Burgos, namely Saoit, Poblacion and Nagsurot. It is composed of 50 wind turbines, each with a capacity to generate three MW.

Santos said the company is currently working on its feed-in-tariff (FIT) incentive, which the Department of Energy (DOE) will grant to 200 MW of wind projects.