Global Business Power to build 115MWp solar plant in Rizal

By Myrna M. Velasco – July 6, 2021, 3:47 PM
from Manila Bulletin

Global Business Power Corporation (GBP) of businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan’s conglomerate, will be building a 115-megawatt peak (MWp) solar power facility in Rizal that it targets to bring on commercial stream next year.

The power project to be sited in the town of Baras, according to the company, will be implemented by its subsidiary PH Renewables Inc. (PHRI) and this shall serve as GBP’s maiden renewable energy installation in Luzon.

“PHRI’s solar project marks GBP’s entry in the renewable energy market,” the developer-firm noted; emphasizing that the facility will be installed at a 135-hectare lot inside the grounds of the Philippine Communications Satellite Corporation (PHILCOMSAT) facility.

As stated by Jaime T. Azurin, president of GBP, this solar project is being advanced by the MVP group “in response to the government’s push for renewable energy.”

He qualified that “although the journey towards this day has been extra challenging because of the global pandemic and movement restrictions, we remain in high spirits and committed to commence operations in 2022, in time for post-pandemic recovery.”

The project-sponsor company said it tapped China Energy Engineering Group Guangdong Electric Power Design Institute Co., Solenergy Systems and China Energy Engineering Co. Ltd. “to provide the design, engineering, procurement and construction of the plant facility.”

Given the manifest deficiency in power supply in the country’s biggest power grid, especially during the summer months, competition has been ramping up in the solar project development space because that is the ideal technology that could have high generation as weather temperature rises.

For GBP as a project developer in the RE sector, it will be getting its much-needed boost with the integration of its operation with Meralco PowerGen, the power generation investment arm of Manila Electric Company (Meralco), as a result of the merger and acquisition (M&A) deal that had been concretized among these affiliate-firms in March this year.

GBP has traditionally concentrated on its project developments in Visayas and Mindanao grids in the past; and it is only this time that it is finally advancing targeted projects in Luzon.

While leadership transitioning is shaping up at MGen, it was reiterated by Meralco President Ray C. Espinosa that the company’s blueprinted 1,500MW of RE capacity shall continually be pursued in the next five (5) years.

That development timeframe, it was indicated, shall stretch until 2027; and it will be the Meralco group’s “commitment to help ensure energy security through clean, cost-competitive and sustainable power.”