Enfinity aligns Davao solar project for Mindanao’s 2016 summer supply
The power supply of hydro-dependent Mindanao is bracing for extreme brownout threats again especially with the much-anticipated hit of El Nino event, hence, solar firm developer Enfinity S.A. is queuing its 28.6-megawatt Digos solar project to help shore up the grid’s supply in next year’s critical summer months.
This will be the first phase of the planned 43.6MW solar farm development that the Belgian firm has been lining up in Davao del Sur. Phase two has been designed for 15MW capacity addition.
Enfinity said the first phase of the Digos solar farm will be on stream around February 2016, a timeframe that falls well within the grid’s extreme need for additional supply as demand peaks on the scorching summer months.
“The phase 1 of the solar facility which will be developed in a 34.8-hectare site in Davao del Sur is targeted for commercial commissioning around February 2016, this is just in time for the strike of the high-demand months of summer,” the company has noted in a press statement.
As explained by William Ruccius, business development director at Enfinity Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd., “solar production matches with the power demand as the generation is during the peak time of day and the maximum generation occurs in the hot summer months when the sun is directly overhead and seasonal demand is highest.”
The Digos solar project was just recently given go-signal to advance to construction stage, with the “notice to proceed” already served formally to its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors – Indian firm Sterling and Wilson in the lead with local contractor-counterpart Miescor.
As Mindanao grid conventionally leaned on diesel or bunker-C fuel fired plants on its requirements for peaking power, the Belgian firm also set on the table its value proposition that solar could be a cost-competitive option for such need of the grid.
Ruccius has emphasized that “solar is a low-cost solution to peaking power today and as the cost continues to come down in the near future, it will take a bigger share of the generation load.”
The project funding for phase one was placed at P2.0 billion, with the local cost components generally covering civil works, concrete and other materials, and also the wages of workers at the site. The solar photovoltaic (PV) panels supplier will be Hanwha Group of South Korea.
For the facility’s electricity output, project sponsor Enfinity is eyeing that it could corner a fraction of the feed-intariff incentives for it under the second wave of the country’s solar development race.
But for the phase two expansion, Ruccius has noted that they are “in discussions with electric cooperatives in Mindanao to supply power through long-term power purchase agreements.”