Planned Windpark In Baras

Last Sunday, my friends and I were talking about the planned wind farm in Catanduanes. So I did some research and came up with this company called Cammon Windsolar Energy Inc., a joint venture between German and Filipino partners founded in 2003. The planned site will be located at a 3.24 hectares land in Baras. The factors for choosing Baras were:

• Distance to the Baras main grid connection point is not far away. There are good provincial and municipal roads.
• The Wind Farm Exploration and development is one of the most welcome investment in the Philippines. There is enough distance to the residential zone. The wind speed is between 7 – 8.8 m per second. The properties are in the average 85 % Government Owned Land.
• There are abandoned logging roads. The terrain is rolling. The grid connection is more than sufficient for Wind Turbine Systems.

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IFRERA Project

I came upon a newsletter about Innovative Financial Scheme for Sustainable Renewable Energy Project in Rural Areas in Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia (IFRERA), co-funded by the EC-ASEAN Energy Facility for the period 2004-2006. IFRERA is a collaborative effort between IED, ETC, ADEME, IoE, and MBA, and the local authorities and investors in the concerned countries.

"Actually, the review of MHPP (Mini Hydro Power Plants) feasibility study for the site Lower Duigui, Catanduanes island in Philippines is underway to complete in May. The feasibility study will be reviewed by IED in collaboration with POC, a local partner, using the same hydrology data as was computed in 2000. This revised F/S report will be provided to POC during the third week of May 2005 to take an initial decision as to whether to pursue the F/S and process of investment preparation."

Preliminary results for the technical feasibility study for the site located on the Catanduanes Island of the Philippines show that its size would be in the vicinity of 2000 kW and generate around 8 GWh/y."

I have no idea where lower Duigui is located but I find this project study forms part of the ongoing MHPP projects being undertaken.

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Taming the Howling Winds

Its a good news that Suweco is taking a serious look at the wind energy potentials of our province. Seven years ago, the Joint UNDP/World Bank Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme (ESMAP), a special global technical assistance program run as part of the World Bank's Energy, Mining and TelecommLinications Department, eliminated our province along with Guimaras and Romblon.

"Catanduanes was eliminated because of vulnerability to typhoons. Romblon and Guimaras were eliminated because of limited ability to absorb a large wind project (unless an underwater cable to a significant load center already exists) and because of moderate resource indications (for large wind plants, not for wind/diesel or Rural applications). In addition, access for constructing and operating a windfarm would appear to be more difficult than at the Ilocos Norte sites."

Apparently, the wind vane and turbine technology at that time were not yet designed to withstand to extreme weather changes. And hopefully, that if the plan push through, the engineers should locate the wind farm far from inhabited areas because of the noise pollution wind vanes creates and out of birds habitat to reduce birds fatalities.

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Letters from ERC - Part 2

This is the last letter from the commission wherein I asked about who computes the cost of power passed on to end-consumers and the possibility of overcharging by including non-generating expense i.e system loss in excess of the allowed cap and company used power, then passed on as PPA.

Nov. 13, 2002 from ERC Public Information Division.

The electric cooperative is the one that computes the cost of electricity which it charges to the end-consumers, but the approval of rates is within the jurisdiction of ERC in the exercise of its electricity tariff setting function. While it is true that PPA is automatically passed on to the consumers, the same is subject to a thorough evaluation and confirmation by the Commission.

ERC sees to it that no overcharging or double charging is done by the electric utilities. The Commission strictly observes the standards of rate setting. If the consumer believes that his electricity service provider is unreasonably charging him, then he may bring his concern to the attention of the Consumer Desk Officer of said utility. Should he find the response not satisfactory, he may elevate the matter to the Comission by writing to or calling the Consumer Affairs Service (CAS) of ERC.

We hope that we are able to address your concern.

Thank you and God bless.

Read the first part...

RELATED LINKS:

• Letters from ERC - 1 - ERC explains composition of PPA charged by FICELCO
• Reasons Not to Acquire SPUG Gensets - Reasons not to bid for FICELCO power gensets
• DOE Gives Go Signal For More Mini Hydro Plants - Construction of Mini-hydro in Catanduanes
• Our Next Gateway to Bicol - Planned port in Caramoran Catanduanes by 2010
• Reason for Carbon Projects Development - Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
• Power Load Characteristics - Power consumption of Catanduanes
• Why So Much Interest to Build RE Plants? - Carbon credits and climate change
• Development of Tidal Power Plant - Proposed tidal power plant in Catanduanes
• Planned Windpark in Baras - Location of the proposed windpark in Baras, Catanduanes
• IFRERA Project - Innovative Financial Scheme for Sustainable Renewable Energy Project in Rural Areas in Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia
• Taming the Howling Winds - Proposal by SUWECO to construct a windpark in Baras, Catanduanes
• Second Look at Tidal Power Development - Proposed tidal power plant development in Catanduanes

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Letters From ERC - Part 1

Whenever on vacation, my late father would often discuss with me why our place is not moving forward, he would argue about the leadership and our typhoon prone location, but I argued about the high cost of power, making us less competitive and attractive to investors. Out of curiosity I checked their monthly bills and found an item PPA (Purchased Power Adjustment).

Sensing that there was something wrong, I sent an email to ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission) asking why the inclusion of the item PPA when there was no IPP (Independent Power Producer) to speak of. I also asked about the power outages.

Here is the first part of their explanation, (dated 2001) ERC's Public Information Division.

We presume that the electric cooperatives not connected to the Luzon Grid or IPP’s which you mentioned in your letter source their power requirements from NPC-Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG). NPC-SPUG refers to the functional unit of NPC created to pursue Missionary electrification function.

This function involves the provision of basic electricity service on Unviable Areas with the ultimate aim of bringing the operations in those areas to viability levels.

Although these cooperatives obtain their power supply from NPC-SPUG, they are still allowed to charge and collect Purchased Power Adjustment (PPA). This is so because NPC is authorized to pass on Fuel and Purchased Power Cost Adjustment (FPCA), which consist of two components, namely: Fuel Cost Adjustment (FCA) and Purchased Power Cost Adjustment. Thus, for DUs not connected to the Grid, they are charged FCA only. NPC cannot pass on to its SPUG customers the Purchased Power Cost Adjustment (PPCA) because there is no IPP to speak of in the first place. Thus, the consumers of the subject cooperatives do not benefit from the pegging of PPCA at P0.40/kWh per directive of PGMA issued on May 8, 2002.

On top of FCA, the other components of PPA, which the electric cooperatives may pass on to their end-customers, include system loss, company used power and other adjustments. PPA is collected not simply because of excess power, but such excess power forms part of the minimum energy off-take (MEOT), which the parties have agreed to undertake, even if the same is not used, or partially used.

The power outage in your place may be systematic in origin. It may be due to some operational inefficiencies of the electric cooperative.

We would be glad if you could give us information on your exact location to enable us to address your concern on the power outage in your place.

Continue reading...

RELATED LINKS:

• Letter from ERC - 2 - ERC explains the flow of PPA charged by power cooperatives.
• Reasons Not to Acquire SPUG Gensets - Reasons not to bid for FICELCO power gensets
• DOE Gives Go Signal For More Mini Hydro Plants - Construction of Mini-hydro in Catanduanes
• Our Next Gateway to Bicol - Planned port in Caramoran Catanduanes by 2010
• Reason for Carbon Projects Development - Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
• Power Load Characteristics - Power consumption of Catanduanes
• Why So Much Interest to Build RE Plants? - Carbon credits and climate change
• Development of Tidal Power Plant - Proposed tidal power plant in Catanduanes
• Planned Windpark in Baras - Location of the proposed windpark in Baras, Catanduanes
• IFRERA Project - Innovative Financial Scheme for Sustainable Renewable Energy Project in Rural Areas in Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia
• Taming the Howling Winds - Proposal by SUWECO to construct a windpark in Baras, Catanduanes
• Second Look at Tidal Power Development - Proposed tidal power plant development in Catanduanes

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Lost in The Streets of Binondo

I was in Binondo, Manila yesterday and literally got lost to where I dropped off. So I just walked around the place like a tourist lost in the streets of Chinatown.

Walking around Binondo is like walking in a living historical museum, seeing the old and the new. The old PNB building, the Binondo Plaza and chinese medicines, charms and food being sold in every street corners. And comes the newer establishments of Jollibee, Chowking, KFC and the likes.

Virac is very much like Binondo, the town planning are relatively the same. The public plaza and church are adjacent except that they don't have a beachfront but a river which at that time almost a few inch from overflowing.

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Climate Change

Climate change is any long-term change in the statistics of weather over durations ranging from decades to millions of years. It can be manifest in changes to averages, extremes, or other statistical measures, and may occur in a specific region or for the Earth as a whole.

In recent usage, especially in the context of environmental policy, climate change usually refers to changes in modern climate. For information on temperature measurements over various periods, and the data sources available, see temperature record. For attribution of climate change over the past century, see attribution of recent climate change.

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