Friday, May 25, 2007 Sugar plantation's power plant to provide addt'l supply to Panay
ENERGY Secretary Raphel P.M. Lotilla has announced that the co-generation plant of the Central Azucarera de San Antonio (Casa) will start supplying an additional five megawatts (MW) of electricity to Panay in the next six months.
Lotilla said Casa's 14-MW biomass co-generation plant in Passi, Iloilo has an excess capacity of five MW that can be offered to distribution utilities in Panay beginning in November.
"The co-gen plant is ready to sell to the grid. It's available during the milling season, from November to March, and they can even extend it by an additional month," Lotilla told reporters.
Casa, a co-generation facility built at the tune of P1.6 billion, is headed by the group of Steven Chan, brother of singer-composer Jose Marie Chan, who is also a native of Iloilo.
It will supply additional power to its sugar mill factory of about nine MW and will supply local electricity requirements for Passi City and the towns of Dueñas and San Enrique in Iloilo.
Lotilla said Casa is equipped with dual wet scrubbers to ensure compliance with air quality standards prescribed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
He added the co-generation facility will be powered by a 200-metric ton per hour suspension-fired bagasse boiler and will use sugar cane bagasse, a refuse from its sugar milling operations, to fuel the plant.
Casa foresees a 12-MW expansion for commercial dispatch in the midterm. (MSN/Sunnex)
