The Aseagas Corp. has settled its loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines despite its 8.8-megawatt (MW) biomass power project in Lian, Batangas being on temporary shutdown.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Aboitiz Power Corporation said that its unit prepared its P2.368 billion outstanding loan with the DBP.
The company has invested equity of around P950 million for the biomass plant and has around P460 million in outstanding liabilities. This is on top of the loan.
Aseagas also disclosed that its biomass project has temporarily stopped operations on November 24 because of the unavailability of the organic effluent wastewater supply from Absolut Distillers Inc.
The company decided to maintain the shutdown to determine the appropriate way forward after evaluating the circumstances and ongoing technical problems relating to the plant’s fuel stock and digester components.
“This continued shutdown will allow us to look at our options, taking into consideration the interests of all our stakeholders,” AboitizPower president and COO Antonio Moraza said.
“Despite these challenges, our other projects are progressing as planned. About 500 MW of attributable capacity, mainly from baseload and hydropower plants, will come online in 2018. We are on track to meeting our 4,000-MW net attributable capacity target by 2020,” he added.
The Aseagas plant was supposed to begin its commercial operations in the second quarter of 2017. Before, company officials said that the plant has been encountering issues in entering the commission phase as operating a biomass project is a new territory for AboitizPower.
Through the Aboitiz Renewables Inc., the Aseagas is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the AboitizPower.
