Montalban Methane to expand power assets portfolio

MANILA, Philippines—Montalban Methane Power Corp., which built the country’s first methane power facility, is diversifying its power generation portfolio by building facilities that can generate as much as 148 megawatts of power using other renewable energy sources.

Peregrino P. Fernandez Jr., president of Montalban Methane, told reporters that the company was looking to develop run-of-river hydro, wind and solar power projects across the country.

According to Fernandez, the company wanted to concentrate more on developing hydropower plants as these can run economically without having to rely on feed-in-tariff (FIT) rates. The financial viability of “all the other renewable energy projects hinge on FIT,” he added.

Fernandez further disclosed that Montalban Methane was preparing to invest $122 million, or about P5.2 billion (at P43 to a dollar), in three run-of-river hydropower projects, scattered in the country’s three main islands.

For the Visayas customers, Montalban Methane is developing a 9-MW hydropower facility in Samar, with investments running up to $30 million (or about P1.29 billion). The construction of this power plant, which has already secured the green light from the Department of Energy, is expected to start by March next year, according to Fernandez.

For Mindanao, the company is putting up a 25-MW hydropower plant in Agusan, the costs of which are expected to reach around $80 million (roughly P3.44 billion). Fernandez said that Montalban Methane had started preparations for the power plant’s construction, which is expected to start between this month and February 2012.

He said Montalban Methane had secured a foreign partner for the Agusan hydropower project.

In Luzon, the company is looking to develop another 4-MW hydropower facility in Rizal, which will cost about $12 million (or about P516 million).

The company is looking for potential partners for a planned 60-MW wind power project in Luzon.

As for its planned solar power projects, Fernandez said the company was eyeing a 50-MW solar facility for Batangas, Pangasinan and/or Rizal. This particular project will be implemented with a foreign partner, he added.

Montalban Methane is a joint venture between the Tranzen Group Inc. owned by Salvador Zamora II (60 percent) and Carbon Assets Fund of Cayman Island, a majority-owned company of UK-based Carbon Capital Markets (40 percent).

It currently operates an 8.19-MW methane plant in Rizal, which serves some 20,000 metropolitan households with clean and green energy through the country’s biggest power distributor,