China’s CBI aims to end Mindanao brownouts

Chinese company Coal-Based Investment Holdings Co. Ltd. (CBI) aims to put an end to eight to ten hours of daily brownouts in Mindanao with plans to build a 100-megawatt (MW) coal-powered plant in the region. Massive outages have covered Mindanao since 2010, with the El Niño-induced drought keeping water levels down in dams that supply hydro-electric power plants. The region heavily depends on such power sources. Company president Dr. Simeon Chan also opened the possibility of expanding the plant’s capacity to 300 MW. “If we see it needs more electricity, we [will] scale up to produce for their medium- and long-term needs," he said. CBI also plans to address the need for a “clean" energy production facility, said Chan, explaining that the company will use a Chinese-developed technology called coal poly-generation (CPG), which generates energy with zero carbon emission. “We can reduce pollution in the environment because we do not burn coal. We gasify the coal so all the residue from the process is converted to usable products," Chan said. The CPG plant will stand as only the second of its kind in the world, next to the pilot site in Shantung, China, which has operated for the past five years. Chan also took pride in the cost of power from the CPG plant, which he said will remain more expensive than those from hydro-electric power plants but will cost less than power from conventional coal-fired sources. “We can use low-quality coal compared with conventional coal plants, which use a specific kind of coal. We have more options so we have much lower price for production," Chan said. The company president also said the company can tap the coal reserve in Zamboanga, Sibugay. He said CBI is also looking at prospects of importing coal from Indonesia, Australia, and Canada. The company expects the plant to go full-throttle this year. — PE/VS, GMA News