An island whose progress is 100 percent powered by clean, renewable, reliable energy — this is geothermal leader Energy Development Corp.’s vision for the whole island of Negros where its 2nd biggest geothermal site has been operating for almost 40 years.
“EDC is willing to help Negros reach that state of being fully powered by RE through its geothermal portfolio,” said Norreen Bautista, head of EDC’s Corporate Social Responsibility team in Negros Island.
EDC’s 222.5-megawatt Southern Negros Geothermal Project located in Valencia, Negros Oriental contributes 19 percent of the company’s 1,181-megawatt geothermal portfolio.
It is also responsible for putting EDC and the Philippines on the map as the world’s 3rd largest geothermal producer, something that every Negrosanon should be proud of since it has also helped Negros become a green island.
The geothermal facility currently supplies clean, renewable power to four out of five electric cooperatives in Negros Island: two megawatts to Negros Oriental I Electric Cooperative, 25 MW to Negros Oriental II Electric Cooperative, 20 MW to Central Negros Electric Cooperative, and three MW to Northern Negros Electric Cooperative. All these comprise about 16 percent of the island’s power supply out of its peak demand of 312 MW.
“These EDC geothermal power plants ensure that Negros consumers get stable and reliable power in the island while the power supply agreements that the four ECs have with us ensure competitively priced power rates that protect them from volatile price increases brought about by coal price movements indexed on forex and coal fuel prices,” confirmed Bautista.
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Still, EDC’s existing total geothermal portfolio mostly from its Leyte power plants allows the company to provide additional clean, reliable power at competitive rates even to Negros Island.
Its 711.4 MW Leyte geothermal facility has the biggest wet steam in the world and is the company’s biggest site. Combined power from EDC’s Negros and Leyte plants will be more than enough to supply all the power requirements of all Negros Electric Cooperatives and their consumers.
“Consistent with both Negros Oriental and Occidental’s goal of maintaining their respective green areas, we need to decarbonize our island fast to lessen the impact of our changing climate and one way of doing that would be to get more from renewable sources like geothermal energy,” added Bautista.
Geothermal is considered as the Holy Grail among sources of RE because it is the only one that can provide continuous power 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (PR)
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