Philippines OKs 208 Megawatts of Wind Power Under New Incentive Tariffs

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Philippines' Department of Energy has approved the construction of three windfarm projects with a total generating capacity of 208 megawatts (MW).

These projects will be the first to benefit from a recently applied incentive scheme to introduce more renewable energy to the grid. The scheme is intended to help the nation meet its goal of using renewables for 50% of its total energy by 2030. Renewables, including hydropower, currently contributes about 39% of the grid total.

The Department of Energy's renewable energy bureau chief, Mario Marasigan, said that the three projects are scheduled to be operational by early 2015. "We approved their declarations of commerciality," he said. "They guaranteed to us that they are viable under the rate of 8.53 pesos ($0.21) per kilowatt-hour (kWh)."

The Department of Energy declared the 54-MW wind power project of Trans-Asia Renewable Energy Corporation (TAREC) in San Lorenz, Guimaras, commercially viable. This allowed Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corporation, TAREC's principal, to convert the wind energy service contract into the development and commercial stage from a pre-development status.

The company said that the Department of Energy will determine the project's eligibility to use the feed-in tariff when it was commissioned, and the department gave the go-ahead for commercial operations. The Philippines' Energy Regulatory Commission has approved a feed-in tariff rate of 6.63 pesos ($0.16) per KWh for wind projects. Tran-Asia, part of the Phinma Group (Makati City), has scheduled the start of construction on the project within the next 12 months.

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