Last year we reported that Central Azucarera de San Antonio(CASA) was planning to build a $1.6 B Bagasse fed powerplant with 14MW capacity. It has been announced that this power plant is ready to start selling their excess 5MW to the grid come November when milling season starts.
The plant will operate from November to March during Sugar milling season and can extend operation till April. CASA also announced that they were planning to increase the capacity of the plant by another 12MW.
Those who will benefit directly from the excess 5MW are those living close to the plant, by drawing directly from it, users are not charged the P1 transmission rate. I hope however that the air pollution generated from the burning of bagasse is not deadly to the nearby residents, otherwise that P1 savings will just go to pay for the cost of respiratory check ups.
I also hope that with the $1.6B spent on the plant, considerable investment was made in scrubbers to lessen the impact of air pollution. Having spoken to a manager of diesel fed power plant before, he said that almost half the cost of their 4 engine power plant was spent in the smoke stack and the necessary scrubbers.
Article here.
Category: Energy News
