//NST Business
KUALA LUMPUR: The Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) is collaborating with a new local renewable energy player Concord Green Energy on a biogas project to generate 5.6 megawatts of electricity across its four palm oil mills – two in Johor and two in Pahang.
Concord chief executive officer Datuk Khairuddin Tan Sri Mohd Hussin said under the partnership, Concord will be responsible for the investment cost of RM50 million to build, operate and maintain the biogas plants for 16 years.
The investment cost will be funded via borrowings, grant and financial support from Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit (Teraju) and Malaysian Investment Development Authority as well as internal funding, he added.
As part of the RM50 million investment, Khairuddin said Concord had bought six Jenbancher Type 4 gas engines from General Electric to convert waste, or the palm oil mill effluent (POME), to electricity.
“Instead of discarding the waste from Felda’s mills, we can now convert it to be something useful for us, that is to generate electricity. The excess electricity from the units will be sold and injected to the national grid,” said Khairuddin at the contract signing ceremony between Concord and Dana Engineering for the biogas project.
To expand Concord’s capabilities as an operator of the project, the company has roped in Dana Engineering to provide overall maintenance of the biogas plants, engineering support and spare parts supply.
The project is expected to be ready and start generating revenue from October next year, said Khairuddin, adding that the revenue will be shared at mutually-agreed ratio with Felda.
Kharuddin said Concord haf been in talks with Felda to extend the project to the latter’s 10 palm oil mills in the country.
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