By Iris C.
Gonzales (The Philippine Star) | Updated June 24, 2013 - 12:00am
MANILA,
Philippines - Energy Development Corp. (EDC), the Lopez-led geothermal energy,
is set to start construction of its 87-megawatt wind farm in Burgos, Ilocos
Norte.
The company
has already issued the Notice to Proceed (NTP) to its wind farm contractor,
Vestas, marking the start of actual construction works at the site for the initial 87 MW of what is
intended to become a 150 MW wind farm, officials said during the weekend.
With the
issuance of the NTP, the Lopez-led geothermal company would proceed with the
construction of the farm in a 600-hectare site covering three barangays in
Burgos: Saoit, Poblacion and Nagsurot.
Vestas of
Denmark is the wind turbine manufacturer tapped by EDC to construct the 87-MW
wind farm and ancillary equipment and facilities.
Under the
agreement, Vestas would install 29 units of its V90-3.0MW turbines, with a
10-year operations and maintenance agreement that includes an energy-based
availability guarantee.
In May, the
Department of Energy (DOE) granted the Burgos Wind Project a Certificate of
Confirmation of Commerciality, paving the way for the construction of the $300
million project to proceed.
EDC president
and COO Richard Tantoco said the company is on track to achieve commercial
operations by 2014.
“The BWP is a
major pillar of our P32 billion investment plan this year. We are proceeding as
planned given our fully funded business plan and the proven Vestas
technology. We are pleased to announce
that the construction of the BWP will now commence and we are confident that
BWP will be the first to achieve commercial operations by 2014,” he said.
To cover the
project’s investment cost of $300 million, EDC recently tapped an $80 million
club loan facility and sold P7 billion fixed rate bonds.
“It is deliberate
that our P7 billion fixed rate bond is a single purpose facility meant solely
for the funding of the BWP as this readily covers the spend on BWP this 2013,”
Tantoco said.
The Burgos
Wind Project marks EDC’s foray into the wind energy business and once completed
would be the largest wind farm in the Philippines.
It is part of
the move of First Gen Corp., the affiliate firm of EDC to be the country’s
leading renewable energy firm.
The BWP is
one of the largest investments to date in Ilocos Norte.
Once
operational, the BWP is expected to generate about 233 gwh of electricity a
year, enough to power more than a million households and augment the Luzon
grid’s dependable capacity, which needs an additional 4,200MW in the next ten
years, EDC said.
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