Biomass power to ease Panay power shortage
Passi City, Iloilo--The island-wide power shortage in Panay is expected to ease up with additional power supply coming from a newly-constructed power plant in barangay Cadilang here.
Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla and Sen. Franklin Drilon inaugurated last Tuesday, October 31, the P1.6 billion Central Azucarera de San Antonio and its 14-megawatt (MW) biomass co-generation plant.
Lotilla said that Panay island's peak power demand is 250-255 megawatts.
"Right now, the entire island of Panay is still unable to produce enough power for its own needs," Lotilla said.
The sugar mill and the power plant is owned by the Chan family. Sugar milling operations are expected to commence by February next year. Two to three weeks after that, the power plant will also be operational, Antonio Steven Chan said.
Nine megawatts of the plant's output will be used by the sugar mill. The remaining five megawatts will be sold to the National Power Corporation. The five megawatt will later be increased to 12 MW, Lotilla said.
Chan said that they are also negotiating with the officers of Iloilo Electric Cooperatives one and two.
Although this won't totally solve the power shortage in Panay, every megawatt produced especially from renewable sources will be a big contribution to the island, Lotilla said.
The power plant's generators will be run by bagasse, a sugarcane residue.
Lotilla hailed the sugar central's decision to invest in its cogeneration plant fueled from the refuse of its own sugar milling operations said a statement from the Department of Energy. "This not only increases renewable energy use in the country but also indicates a trend where large electricity users take steps to improve the cost efficiency of their operations and at the same time provide for their own power requirements."
The DOE said that the power plant is equipped with dual wet scrubbers to ensure compliance with air quality standards of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
At the present, Panay's power supply comes from three Napocor power plants in Dingle, Iloilo and Nabas and New Washington in Aklan; the submarine power cable from Negros Occidential; and from a geothermal power plant in Leyte.
Upgrading of the submarine cable to 100 megawatt capacity is underway, as well as the Northern and Southern Backbone projects, both of which will not be operational before 2009, to improve the island's power supply, Lotilla said.