Philippines: First ocean power plant rising in San Bernardino

Philippines: First ocean power plant rising in San Bernardino

PNOC-Renewables Corp. has assigned local energy company H&WB Asia Pacific
(Pte. Ltd.) Corp. and French partner Sabella SaS to build the first ocean
power plant in the Philippines.

It will also be the first facility to tap tidal energy in Southeast Asia.

The companies will deploy tidal in-stream energy conversion technology in
H&WB's three concession areas in San Bernardino Strait between Matnog,
Sorsogon and Capul and Dalupiri in Northern Samar.

H&WB is a registered Philippine corporation that promotes and develops
systems that produce, process and generate energy from fossil and renewable
energy resources. Its French partner Sabella brings into the project its
expertise in marine technologies.

PNOC RC says it believes in harnessing renewable energy from tidal streams
along Philippines' coasts, and commits to contribute to energy
self-sufficiency in line with the Department of Energy's policy of a
balanced energy mix.

The renewable energy unit of PNOC signed a memorandum of understanding on
Oct. 27, 2016 with H&WB on three service contracts from the Department of
Energy, mainly in San Bernardino Strait, and with Sabella SAS of France, a
global leader in the marine energy industry.

H&WB earlier performed ocean resource assessment and preliminary in situ
current measurements to determine the overall energy potential of San
Bernardino Strait between Matnog in Sorsogon and Northern Samar.

Moreover, it carried out a thorough review and analysis of proven tidal
in-stream energy conversion technologies. The evaluation process led to the
firm selection of Sabella as the technology-of-choice on Tisec technologies.
On Oct. 15, 2015, H&WB and Sabella signed an exclusive memorandum of
agreement to jointly develop and implement a "demonstration project" in
viable blocks of San Bernardino Strait that lead to commerciality.

The Islands of Capul and San Antonio in San Bernardino Strait are in the
Small Power Utilities Group fueled by diesel power plants. Connection to
electricity is limited, sometimes nil, especially in Capul where its
islanders have electricity merely for six hours a day.

The local government of Capul displays strong political will, and its
populace actively gets involved to augment power supply because their old
diesel generators often fail, leading to prolonged blackouts. Growth has
been exceedingly slow. Besides, the deleterious effects of fossil-based
power impact negatively on environmental sustainability.

In view of this, tidal power as part of an innovative, insular energy model
is a green, and cost-competitive alternative to fossil energies, and
guarantees clean power supply, 24/7, aspired for in a carbon-neutral
economy.

Sabella is a pioneering and leading player in the Tisec energy field. It
was originally acclaimed in 2008 for its D03 (3-m rotor diameter), the first
experimental marine current turbine installed in France. In June 2015, the
D10 (10-m rotor diameter with 1 MW maximum power) was submerged in Passage
du Fromveur, and in November 2015 was connected to Ushant, an autonomous
island grid akin to SPUG. It remains the first full-scale Tisec connected to
the French grid in the region of Brittany.

The technology drivers are rooted on modular architecture, which facilitates
and reduces the cost of maintenance by requiring the lifting and recovery
only of the turbine during maintenance operations. This allows easy
deployment and recovery by letting the gravity-based support structure on
the seabed.

The tidal turbine operates fully immersed, causing no hindrance to
navigation or landscape impact. Moreover, the electric signal was fully
qualified by a grid manager in terms of voltage and frequency. After a
one-year authorized demonstration, the D10 turbine was retrieved in July
2016 for complete evaluation and data extraction. It will be laid back in
early 2017 to pursue its power production in Ushant grid for a 3-year
period.

Sabella and H&WB have recently completed a detailed in situ bathymetry
measurement, to move towards a full 3D current numerical model in order to
locate the first demonstration project, which will consist of three to five
turbines.

Their cohesive partnership aims to establish a special purpose company in
the first half of 2017 to commence project finance and engineering works,
thereby, launching the first-ever Tisec power not only in the Philippines
but also in Southeast Asia.

PNOC RC's role is vital, and the MOU with H&WB and Sabella is a pro-active
strategy that can support the project's success, more so, when PNOC RC
decides to invest into the SPC. With PNOC RC, the promise of a new field of
ocean energy can be realized in the Philippines.

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Link to Original Article:
http://thestandard.com.ph/business/227321/first-ocean-power-plant-rising-in-
san-bernardino.html

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com