City in Iloilo eyes 5MW biomass power plant

MANILA, Philippines - A city in Iloilo province aims to address its electricity needs with a 5-megawatt biomass plant in one of its sugar centrals, an online news site has reported. The News Today reported that the power from such a plant to be located in Passi City will be sold at P3 per kilowatt hour. Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas met Tuesday with Steven Chan, owner of the Central Azucarera de San Antonio and Engr. Rey Malleza, supervisor of the Visayas Field Office of the Department of Energy, to discuss details on a possible interconnection. Such an interconnection will link the sugar central to the transmission line of the National Transmission Corporation and the Panay Electric Company Inc. But the energy department will have to affirm the interconnection before power could be transmitted from the source to the end user. Treñas said they would gather expert’s opinion in regard to the use of renewable source of energy such as those coming from a biomass plant, which would be renewable and cheap. However, such energy source would be seasonal in nature as power from the plant is only available during the milling season. Power generated from the biomass plant comes from the sugar cane waste. Meanwhile, the modular generator sets provided by the National Power Corporation to the city would become operational tentatively either in October or November. - GMANews.TV