The Board of Investments (BOI) has approved the registration of Chinese-owned Sinoma Energy Conservation (Cebu) Waste Heat Recovery Co. Inc. as a new operator of a 4.5 megawatt (MW) power generating plant that will supply energy to a cement manufacturing plant in Cebu and consumers in the province.
According to the BOI, the Sinoma project, located in Naga City, Cebu has an investment of P531.2 million.
Despite the delayed construction caused by the pandemic, BOI said that the Sinoma project is expected to commence commercial operations during the first quarter of 2022. It will employ about 17 employees, mostly from the city of Naga and nearby areas.
A domestic market enterprise, Sinoma complied with the qualification requirements under “Energy” of the 2020 Investment Priorities Plan (IPP) as the transitional Strategic Investment Priority Plan (SIPP) of the recently-enacted Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE).
BOI said that Sinoma’s parent company, duly organized and existing under the laws of the Republic of China, is engaged in investing in waste heat power generation projects and related engineering technology development, consultancy and design.
Under a Power Supply Agreement (PSA), the power plant will provide significant support to a specific cement company in Cebu by capturing and using the waste heat of the cement plant to generate steady and cost-effective supply of electricity at about 23,130,000 KWH per year. Without the waste heat to energy project, the heat content of the gases generated by the cement plant, which BOI did not identify, will just simply go to waste.
The project will thus, result in an indirect impact of increasing the power supply available for use by other consumers.
The BOI did not divulge the cement plant partner of Sinoma, but cited the Philippines’ Technology Needs Assessment for Climate Change Mitigation report in June 2018, which showed that the cement industry has already installed three waste heat recovery power generation systems with a total capacity of 17.5 MW. These are the Cemex Antipolo Plant (6 MW), Lafarge Teresa Plant (4.5 MW), and Eagle Cement Corporation (7 MW).
The same report showed that the waste heat recovery (WHR) system lowers plant specific energy consumption, reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and air pollutants emissions. It was estimated that carbon dioxide emission reduction is 11,800 tons/year for Lafarge Teresa Plant that has a similar capacity with the Project at 4.5 MW.
In 2020, coal relentlessly dominated the installed capacity mix in the Philippines with a share of 42 percent followed by Renewable Energy (RE) at 29 percent, Oil-Based at 16 percent, and Natural Gas sits at 13 percent. Globally, climate change has been a hot topic for several years, and in a bid to phase down coal eventually, the Glasgow Climate Pact was struck recently at the COP26 to reduce coal use and to ultimately cut carbon emission.
Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo shared that the country would shift to greener and sustainable initiatives.
Rodolfo expects energy demand will rise again as the economy recovers from the pandemic. Building up of capacity and employment of energy-efficient technologies are necessary in order to ensure a stable/ unhampered and hopefully, cleaner supply of electricity, he said.