5 power firms get DoE certificates

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Energy has granted five companies with certificates of endorsement, a requirement for the operation of existing or newly built power-generation facilities.

Documents from the DoE showed that as of end-March this year, it awarded COEs to Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp., Unisan Biomass Corp., Udenna Corp., Hacienda Bio-Energy and Petron Corp.

Trans-Asia Oil needed the COE for its proposed 135-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Calaca, Batangas. The clean coal power facility, which would be Trans-Asia Oil’s first base-load plant to support its electricity supply business, was earlier estimated to cost P8.5 billion and is targeted to be completed by 2014.

Unisan Biomass will need the COE for its 11.2-MW biomass facility in Quezon province. Power produced from the power plant, which was earlier estimated to cost around $36 million, will be provided for the requirements of Quezon Electric Cooperative (Quezelco).

Udenna, the holding company of Phoenix Petroleum Holdings Inc. and Udenna Management and Resources Corp., is managing the existing 116-MW diesel-fired power plant located at the Subic Gateway District within the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

This diesel power plant started commercial operation in January 1993 under a build-operate-and-transfer (BOT) project agreement with Enron Power Philippines Corp. and the state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor).

Enron then transferred ownership to the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, which earlier bid out the management of the facility. Udenna won the bidding and is now the new operator of the diesel facility, which can be started any time to contribute additional capacity to the grid.

DoE documents also showed that the COE of Hacienda Bio-Energy would be used for its 125-kilowatt biomass facility in Bukidnon.

As for Petron, its planned P10-billion, 70-MW fuel-fired facility within the company’s refinery compound in Limay, Bataan, is expected to improve the reliability, sourcing flexibility and cost efficiency of the refinery to meet Petron’s growing steam and power requirements. The facility is expected to start running by 2012.

The use of its own power plant was also expected to generate P1 billion in savings a year for Petron.