THE POWER PLANT

San Jose City I Power Corporation (iPower) The iPower (ipa Power) project is a joint venture of Union Energy Corporation and rice millers in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija. Its main purpose is to generate efficient and clean energy from rice husk biomass and to adhere continuously to laws and regulations sustaining the health and safety of the people and environment for a better place to live in. Geographic Information The iPower is situated in the so called Rice Granary of the Philippines in Barangay

Fig 1. Site location of the power plant and rice millers.

Calaocan located on the northernmost city of the province of Nueva Ecija on the Island of Luzon. It is approximately 160km north from Manila at map coordinates 154652.0 north and 1205948.5 east with an area of 41,117 m2. The 12MW rice husk-fired power plant is situated in rural environment of agroindustrial areas where palay farms and rice milling industries are located. The iPower plant will be the first biomass power plant which will use 100% rice husk as fuel. This fuel will be supplied by San Jose City rice millers located with a radius of 6kms from power plant. Process Related Information The plant was inaugurated last October 12, 2012 and the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) started the following year of 2013. Testing and

commissioning of power plant is scheduled on June 2014 and commercial operation will be on October 2014. This renewable biomass power plant will consume 12-14 tons per hour of rice husk as fuel and will be operating for 24 hours at seven days a week. The plant is designed in a closed-loop system where burning of rice husk will prevent the emission of toxic gases such as methane and carbon dioxide at a very high temperature of at least 800oC. Further, the underground water will be pumped out and passes through multi-media filter. Afterwhich, filtered water will undergo through processes of softening, demineralization, deaeration where chemical treatment takes place. Then, treated water will go to boiler where it will be heated up to boiling and produces high pressure steam. The heat energy from the steam will be converted to mechanical energy by the rotational action of the turbine coupled to the generator and thus, producing electrical energy. The power generated will be transmitted to the national grid through National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) Luzon transmission line. To further enhance the system, the plant is also equipped with Electro-Static Precipitator (ESP), a pollution device that will eliminate emission of dust and ash particles to the surrounding air. This is also in compliance with the local and national legislations and requirements. The plant is designed to operate for at least 25 years.