Farmers’ group seeks offtake deal with Meralco

A farmer cooperative is wooing the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) as offtaker for its proposed 6-megawatt (MW) commercial biogas power plant in Quezon province, which will be completed in 2016.

First Quezon Biogas Corp. (FQBC) is in talks with Meralco on a prospective power purchase agreement, said Carbon Footprint Solutions Inc. (CFSI) president and CEO Apolinario Alvarez. CFSI is providing consultancy services to FQBC, a company fully owned by farmers in Quezon province.

“We are talking to Meralco, we are in the final stages,” Alvarez said.

FQBC is offering a rate higher than the feed-in-tariff (FIT) or guaranteed rate for renewable energy developers, but the power plant developer is sweetening the deal by throwing in the carbon credits for the environmentally friendly operations, Alvarez said.

Asked why FQBC is seeking a per kilowatt-hour (kWh) charge higher than the FIT for biogas and biomass, Alvarez said the guaranteed rate of P6.63 per kWh set by the government did not differentiate the biogas technologies.

“The P6.63 is based on thermal (burning) technology, which is basic. But we have anaerobic digestion, which is cleaner but more expensive,” Alvarez said.

FQBC is building a 6-MW commercial biogas power plant in Candelaria, Quezon province worth P1 billion.

FQBC president Albert S. Alquiros said in a briefing that the cooperative has contracted German power firm EnviTec Biogas AG of Germany and Houston Hydrotech to develop the facility, which is expected to help boost power supply from renewable resources, which is seen to stabilize long-term electricity costs.

FQBC, Envitec and and Houston Hydrotech signed the engineering procurement and construction agreement Thursday to start building the power plant in Sta. Catalina, Candelaria, Quezon. Development will start in the second half of this year. The facility is expected to start supplying Meralco in the first quarter of 2016.

The biogas facility will use 22,000 metric tons of chicken manure produced yearly from Quezon’s poultry farms. The facility will also use agricultural wastes from the province, such as rice straws to produce electricity.

Biogas will be generated from a mix of organic wastes using advanced technology provided by EnviTec Biogas AG and engineering firm Houston Hydrotec Products & Systems Inc., which will build the digesters and residue storage tanks. Houston Hydrotec is an engineering firm that provides water-related products and services in the Philippines.