By Angelica Y. Yang, Reporter
CONSUNJI-LED DMCI Holdings, Inc. said its unit will be pouring in P800 million to develop a 12-megawatt (MW) hybrid solar-diesel power plant, which is set to provide power in Masbate’s off-grid area by next year.
“Our off-grid energy business, DMCI Power [Corp.], is building a hybrid solar-diesel plant in Masbate, which is set for commercial operation by Q2 (second quarter of) 2022. The solar plant is 4 MW while the diesel plant is 2 x 4 MW (8 MW in total),” DMCI Holdings told BusinessWorld via e-mail on July 11.
The listed company said it is allocating “estimated capital expenditures of P800 million” for the hybrid plant. The planned project will be linked to the mini-grid of the province’s missionary area.
Three months ago, an executive from one of the firm’s subsidiaries Semirara Mining and Power Corp. said its parent company was looking at opportunities in the country’s renewable energy (RE) sector.
“DMCI Holdings is bullish on off-grid renewable energy. We believe the grid is already saturated, but the missionary market is ripe for RE expansion,” the firm said last week.
If the new Masbate plant does well, the company hopes to build similar plants in Palawan and Oriental Mindoro in the medium term.
DMCI Holdings fully owns DMCI Power, which was established to power up remote and off-grid islands in the Philippines.
On its website, DMCI Power said it continues to pursue its vision of becoming a “major off-grid player” in the local power industry.
At present, DMCI Power’s wholly owned unit DMCI Masbate Power Corp. operates a 15-MW circulating fluidized bed thermal plant in Brgy. Tugbo, Mobo.