AP Renewables Inc. (APRI), a subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corporation, is eyeing completion this year of its 17-megawatt binary plant for integration into its existing 330MW Tiwi geothermal power facility in Albay province.
As a follow-through to last year’s award of the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to American firm Ormat Technologies Inc. and its Filipino partner Desco Inc.; a formal groundbreaking rites had been carried out for the project on Tuesday, Jan. 17.
As previously stated by APRI, “the project will be built from the ground up with an entirely new binary plant system, pipes, and transmission line.”
The Tiwi facility and Makiling-Banahaw (MakBan) geothermal asset in Laguna and Batangas provinces had been APRI’s acquisition through government privatization carried out by Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) in 2008.
For the binary facility, it was explained that “residual heat from the hot brine side of the geothermal production process, otherwise unutilized before reinjecting back to the earth, is harvested to produce electricity through the binary geothermal power plant.”
According to APRI President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Jeffrey Estrella, the project has been designed “to extract recoverable heat from the geothermal brine that is processed in a closed-loop system where no harmful gas or liquid is being emitted nor any waste products are discharged to the atmosphere.”
When it reaches commercial operation, the plant’s capacity will add up to the targeted greenfield renewable energy (RE) buildup of the Aboitiz group, which at this point is still considerably fledgling compared to its more aggressive competitors in the industry.
Aboitiz Power Chief Renewables Officer Jimmy A. Villamoran similarly noted that as the country embarks on an energy transition, "We recognize we must work with others both within and outside our industry to contribute to the nation’s energy goals,” emphasizing that “the scale of transformation of the country’s energy system requires collaboration and innovation.”
The Aboitiz group has grand plans of ramping up its RE installations with additional 3,700 MW capacity by the turn of the decade, but more massive scale installations vis-à-vis targets have yet to gain traction.
At this stage, the magnitude of RE projects of the conglomerate already firmed up had been placed at 1,000MW - and these are anticipated to be taking off from blueprints in the months and years ahead.