Quezon Power (Philippines) Ltd. Co. will start co-firing its 460-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Mauban, Quezon with ammonia by the end of the year, the Department of Energy said over the weekend.
“I know for a fact that Quezon Power is planning to experiment with 20-percent co-firing by the end of the year,” DOE undersecretary Rowena Guevara said in a recent forum.
The agency is looking at ammonia co-firing for coal plants to bring down carbon dioxide emissions.
Electricity Generating Public Company Ltd. of Thailand, Quezon Power and Doosan Enerbility Co. Ltd signed a memorandum of understanding in January to study the feasibility of ammonia co-fired power generation at the Quezon power plant.
The MOU will support EGCO Group’s strategic plan to reduce its carbon dioxide emission intensity by 10 percent by 2030.
EGCO Group’s “Cleaner, Smarter and Stronger to Drive Sustainable Growth” business direction aims to promote sustainable growth over the long term for its businesses in the region including Quezon Power with an ultimate goal for EGCO Group of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
The Power for People Coalition and local stakeholders, however, opposed ammonia co-fired generation at the coal plant, saying it would only lead to prolonging and exacerbating woes on high electricity costs and pollution from the facility.
The groups said ammonia is increasingly being promoted by proponents in the region as a way of lowering the carbon footprint of combustion in coal power generation facilities.
“Retrofitting the plant to accommodate co-firing, ammonia fuel production, transport and other required processes will only add more costs and promote the continued use of coal to sell power that consumers simply can no longer afford,” said Gerry Arances, convenor of P4P.