Napocor to earn P957 million from SBMA deal

The National Power Corp. (Napocor) stands to earn P957 million from a two-year power supply contracted with the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).

The power contract replaces an earlier power supply contract between the two government-run entities. Napocor has been feeding electricity to the Subic economic and entertainment zone since it (SBMA) was established.

However, changes in administration forced the two entities to undertake a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with a periodic renewable clause. The last MOA expired two years ago.

According to Napocor's marketing group, the new contract will supply SBMA with a contract demand of 25,000 kilowatthours (kwH) and a contact energy of 13,000,000 kwH (13 gigawatthours) with an effective rate of P2.97 per kwH.

A contract demand is the amount of electricity that Napocor can supply at any given time while the contract energy indicates the average monthly electricity consumption of a particular customer.

Napocor officials said they are capable of feeding SBMA even more electricity in anticipation of the expanding economy, which has attracted more locators in the former US naval base.

"Napocor can serve SBMA's entire electricity demand even if it this balloons by 500 percent," they said, explaining that Napocor has several transmission line in the Luzon Grid that can deliver power including three 230-kilovolts and four 69-k V lines.

Likewise, it has a 100-megavolt ampere (MVA) substation within the SBMA complex and another 200-MVA substation in Olongapo City.

Other industrial estates or ecozones sourcing power from Napocor are: the Baguio Export Processing Zone; the Alcantara-led Lima Land in Batangas; the Cavite Export Processing Zone Authority; Philvidec in Cagayan de Oro; and the Mactan Export Processing Zone-Acoland in Cebu.