Philippines to plug in 250 MW of wind farms by early 2015

Oct 29, 2014 - The Philippines will connect to the grid about 250 MW of wind farms by the end of 2014 or early 2015, energy secretary Carlos Jericho L Petilla said on Tuesday.

The capacity will be interconnected before the expected power shortage in Luzon in the summer of 2015, Petilla said, as quoted by local media. It will come from Manila-based NorthWind Power Development Corp’s 18-MW expansion of the 33-MW Bangui Windmills plant, the 150-MW Burgos wind farm owned by Energy Development Corp (PSE:EDC) and the 81-MW Caparispisan Phase 1 park of the North Luzon Renewable Energy Corp.

According to Petilla, the entire capacity of the plants may not be fully used as the reliability of wind is just 50% during the summer months. The output of the facilities will be sold under the Philippines’ feed-in tariff (FiT) programme for renewables.

Earlier this month, EDC secured USD 315 million (EUR 247m) in loans to support the construction of the 150-MW Burgos wind farm, which is estimated to produce some 370 GWh per year, enough to meet the needs of almost two million local homes. According to the developer, the plant will be completed by the opening quarter of 2015.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.785)

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